


FIDELIA VENETRIX.

by steeleye



Series: Back in the SPQR. [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Crossover Fic; Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Rome., Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-11-21
Packaged: 2017-12-31 09:18:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 46,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1029971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After her fight with Buffy, Faith misses the truck in Sunnydale but hits a cart in Gaul. See additional warnings at the beginning of Chapter One.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

FIDELIA VENETRIX.

By Steeleye.

Disclaimer: I do not own ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, the show ‘ROME’ or the novel ‘Killer’ I write these stories for fun not profit.

Crossover: BtVS with the HBO/BBC TV series ‘ROME’ and the novel ‘Killer’ by David Drake and Karl Edward Wagner.

Punctuation, Spelling and Grammar; Written in glorious English-English which is different to American-English.

Timeline: End of Season 3 for BtVS, 52 BCE for ‘ROME’ and ‘Killer’. Book One of the ‘Back in the SPQR’ series of stories.

Words: Thirteen chapters 3000+ words.

Warnings: Adult themes, violence.

Summary: After her fight with Buffy, Faith misses the truck in Sunnydale but hits a cart in Gaul.

**Author’s Notes:**   
Language.  
Definitely an ‘18’ rating with some STRONG language in some of the chapters; **YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED**.

The snatches of ‘ROME’ script that I’ve used were lifted from the subtitles on my DVD copy of the series.

0=0=0=0

Book One.

FIDELIA VENETRIX 

0=0=0=0

The Prologue.

**A Balcony in Sunnydale, 1999**

Buffy and Faith circled each other warily; they were connected at the wrist by the handcuffs Buffy had snapped on Faith to prevent her from escaping. The terrace where they were fighting was covered with broken glass that crunched under their feet as they sized each other up, watching for an opening. 

“What's the matter?” Buffy taunted, “All that killing…you afraid to die?”

As if in answer Faith pulled Buffy around so she could get the leverage she needed to snap the handcuff’s chain. Once again they faced off, Faith snatched up a length of pipe, while Buffy pulled out Faith's own knife from under her jacket.

“That's mine!” Faith snarled.

“You're about to get it back!” Buffy lunged at Faith leading with the knife.

The two slayers exchanged a flurry of blows, but neither one gained the upper hand. Faith dodged Buffy’s clumsy knife attack as they moved ever closer to the edge of the terrace; Faith grabbed hold of Buffy and pushed her, towards the wall at the edge of the balcony that over looked the street below.

“Man, I'm going to miss this,” Faith felt her confidence rising.

Managing to break Faith’s hold, and in the ensuing struggle, Buffy plunged the knife into Faith’s abdomen. For a moment the two women stared into each others’ eyes, stunned by what had just happened. Faith’s blood began to ooze out of the wound to cover Buffy’s hand, as she slowly slumped against the balcony wall.

“You did it.” Faith smiled weakly up at an astonished Buffy; using the last of her strength Faith pushed Buffy away from her. “You killed me,” Faith clamped her hand over the knife wound, trying to stem the flow of blood seeping from between her fingers. 

With an effort Faith climbed up onto the low wall that surrounded the balcony; she swayed slightly, as if caught in a breeze, and looked over her shoulder, down into the street below.

“Still won't help your boy, though,” the words came to her lips with an effort as she gasped for breath, “shoulda been there, B…quite a ride.”

Falling backwards off the wall Faith vanished.

0=0=0=0

Chapter One.

**Gaul, about two thousand years earlier.**

Two men rode along a muddy track deep in a forest somewhere in Gaul; they were dressed in the uniform of soldiers of the Roman Republic. The lead figure was a well made man of slightly above average height for a Roman. He had blondish-red hair and his armour was of better quality than that of his companion. The second soldier was a heavily built man without a trace of fat on his frame, his hair was shaved down to a dark stubble; his armour of a mail shirt was workmanlike and unadorned by any decoration. As the two men rode through the dank forest they bickered…

“So why did you bring me on this mission?” the larger of the two men addressed his comrade’s back.

“How much chance do you really think we have of finding Caesar’s standard?” the man with the reddish blonde hair, whose name was Vorenus, asked.

The larger man, Pullo, thought about this for a moment or two before answering.

“None what-so-ever?” He shrugged his shoulders under his red cloak at the incomprehensibility of orders.

“Exactly,” Vorenus agreed, “by now the damn thing has been melted down, thrown into a lake or something; this is a fool’s mission.” Vorenus scowled at the dripping trees and wished he was back at home in Rome. “I had to take someone with me so I chose you,” Vorenus glanced over his shoulder, “you were already damned to the arena, so losing you would do the Legion little harm.”

They rode on in silence as Pullo considered what he had just been told.

“So,” Pullo broke the silence, his voice taking on a calculating air. “If I’m already dead, what’s to stop me chopping you into little gobbets and riding off?”

“My superior fighting skills,” a slight smile cracked Vorenus’ face for a second before it returned to its normal stern expression.

“HA!” Pullo laughed, he glanced on down the track way, he’d heard something up ahead. “Hey, what’s that noise?”

0=0=0=0

Faith was on the edge of consciousness; her body ached all over. No one part of her hurt any more or any less than the other. It was like she'd been hurled from a height and had landed on something hard; which of course she had. Remembering the fight and the dull pain as the knife entered her body; she remembered half jumping, half falling from the balcony. She could even remember the sensation of falling, the air rushing passed her ears…and then?

Then nothing, however much Faith tried she couldn’t remember landing; she’d expected to feel the bone shattering impact of landing on the road, or in the back of that truck she’d seen just before she’d jumped. Instead she felt this dull ache that was even now retreating into the background of her mind. Lying there, on what felt like straw that swayed slowly from side to side, she found herself being conveyed in a cart along some uneven track in the cold and damp.

Forcing herself to remain calm, as it would probably be a bad idea to jump up and start demanding to know where she was…for oh so many reasons. Faith made herself lie still and let her finely tuned slayer senses take in as much information as they could before she started to act. Firstly, she noted with some relief, the ache had retreated until it was now a vague memory. First the good news, Faith wiggled her fingers and toes, everything worked and nothing hurt. The bad news was her hands were tied in front of her with what felt like rope.

Okay, she thought, so far so good. If she could break the chain on a pair of handcuffs; rope didn’t rate as any sort of real problem. Moving a little, she found that not only was she was lying on a bed of straw, but that someone had stolen her clothes and replaced them with what felt like a sack with holes cut for her head and arms. For this that ‘someone’ would pay big time; whoever had done it had taken all her clothes and no doubt seen her naked without her permission. If she found that anyone had done anything more than look, she would kill them very slowly and very painfully. Again on the plus side, she realised that there wasn’t a gaping knife wound in her stomach. Which while comforting the feeling was spoilt by the thought that there really _should be_ a gaping knife wound in her stomach and her blood should be soaking the straw that she now lay on; she should also be gasping her last breath just about…now.

The fact that there were no dressings around her middle would suggest one of two things; either she’d been unconscious for so long that her wounds had healed naturally or; her wounds had been healed unnaturally. This could be good or bad, judging on past experience Faith tended to go with the ‘bad’ explanation. It was time to open her eyes and depending on what she saw take some action. Quietly Faith took a deep breath and opened her eyes a little.

Stifling the groan that almost escaped her lips as the light lanced through her head, Faith tried again. This time her eyes just watered at the excess of light before they grew accustomed to it and she blinked her tears away. Yeah, she was lying on some straw, and yep she appeared to be in some sort of cart being pulled through a forest by some kind of slow moving animals. The clopping of their feet could be heard clearly now she risked moving her head off the straw.

“How much do you think we’ll get for her?” asked a rough male voice from the front of the cart.

Faith moved a little so that she could see the speaker.

“Don’t know,” came a second voice, also male, “now the war’s over there’s likely to be a glut…maybe we should keep her for ourselves.”

“Nah,” replied the first voice, “I need the cash.”

It took Faith a moment or two before she realised the two men, that she could just see the backs of, were talking about her. Groaning she shifted her position so she could get at her bonds.

“Looks like she’s coming to,” announced the first voice, Faith sensed some movement at the front of the cart.

A rough hand grabbed hold of her ankle and gave it a shake, Faith remained limp and pretended to still be unconscious.

“I suppose we could fuck her before we sell her,” suggested the first voice.

Who the hell were these bozos and where the hell was she? As far as she knew there was nowhere in the United States where it was normal to go around in animal drawn carts talking about selling young women…well maybe there were one or two places but this wasn’t normal. Faith realised she must’ve been transported to Mexico or some shithole place like that. Well, she thought, there was no time like the present to find out what the fuck was going on; she kicked out with both her feet.

Her left foot caught one of her assailants in the small of the back. With a startled cry he lurched forward and fell off his seat, he windmilled his arms wildly as he crashed to the ground. There was a strangled cry and the cart went up on one wheel as it passed over the first kidnapper. The other guy had fared a little better; Faith had misplaced her kick only striking him a glancing blow. However, it had been hard enough to stun him and it allowed her time to jump to her feet and break her bonds. The guy’s eyes went saucer wide as he watched her rip the rope around her wrists apart with no apparent effort. Realising he was facing something more than an unarmed, defenceless, teenage girl he drew the knife that he carried at his hip. He lunged at Faith, the knife held out in front of him.

Not wishing to be stabbed twice in one day Faith dodged easily to one side and grabbed the man by the wrist; she twisted and pulled all in one easy motion. The carter cried out in agony and dropped his knife; Faith kicked his legs from under him and felt the bones in his wrist break under her hand. Twisting the man's arm she forced him to the floor of the now stationary cart. Placing a foot on the side of his head she hauled back on his injured arm and wrung another cry of pain from his lips. Faith smiled to herself, that’d been fun.

“Where are we?” she snarled as she pulled viciously on the man’s arm; he screamed long and hard before answering.

“B-between C-Carasa and Onia,” he gasped trying to relieve the pain by pulling himself up with his other arm.

Neither name meant anything to Faith; (geography had been yet one more subject she sucked at during her brief incarceration in the Boston public school system) she did however notice her captive’s feeble attempts at escape; she punished him by breaking two of his fingers. The man screamed again and started to sob and beg her not to kill him.

“Where the fuck is Carsa and Oni?” Faith demanded putting more pressure on the man’s broken fingers and arm.

“GAUL!” Shrieked the kidnapper as tears ran down his face.

None of this made much sense to Faith; where the hell was Gaul f’christs sake? In a fit of anger and frustration she broke the man’s neck.

“Damn-it!” she cursed herself, “Didn’t mean to do that…well not just yet anyway.”

0=0=0=0

Jumping down from the cart, Faith looked up and down the track. Apart from the carter’s friend, who lay in an untidy heap in the middle of the track, there was no one in sight. Slowly she walked over to the body, all the time scanning her surroundings keeping a watch out for any danger that might lurk amid the great dark trees. Shivering a little in the cold air, she kicked the body with her bare foot; the body remained still. Faith looked down at herself, her earlier assessment had been correct; she was wearing nothing apart from a sack which reached from her neck and stopped just below her knees. No wonder her ass was half frozen; bending down she took the body by the back of his tunic and picked the man up. His head lolled bonelessly to one side, it must be her day for breaking necks. The thought made her smile as she dragged him back towards the cart.

0=0=0=0

After about ten minutes Faith was warmer but no wiser, she’d found a few items of spare clothing in a pack on the cart. Now she wore some britches that tied at the waist with a draw string and stopped halfway between her knees and ankles. She’d discarded her sack dress and instead wore a tunic that covered most of her arms and went from her neck to just above her knees. A little work with a knife had altered the smaller of the kidnapper’s footwear so now she wore sturdy sandals on her feet. Over this she wore a cloak made out of heavy wool. In fact all her clothing was made from what looked like, to Faith’s untrained eye, homespun wool. It varied in colour from light grey to dark brown; she couldn’t imagine where in the world people would wear threads like this outside of a commune. The two wannabe rapists had spoken English right?

After searching the kidnapper’s belt pouches, none of the clothes had pockets, Faith added a leather belt, pouch and knife to her new belongings. In the two men’s pouches she had found some coins. These had puzzled her more than the clothes. The coins looked old, like you would find in a museum, but these were new; or at least no more than a few years old. There was something about the heads on the coins that jolted some long lost memory; something she could almost remember but try as she might it just wouldn’t come. Faith shrugged her shoulders and tossed the coin she’d been holding into the air. Catching it she dropped it back into her pouch with the others. Next she looked at the knife; the blade was about twelve inches long and about two inches at its widest. The handle was made out of some type of horn or antler. Again it looked as if it belonged in a museum. It was of no design she’d ever seen before but it fit her hand perfectly. Again she shrugged her shoulders and put the knife back in its sheath that now hung from her belt.

Wondering what she should do next, Faith tried to make the two cow-like creatures that pulled the cart move but they remained obstinately stationary. Although it didn’t look as if the cops were going to turn up any time soon, she still had two dead bodies that were likely to be someone’s friends or neighbours. Time to abandon the cart, find a town, find out where she was; and then phone Wilkins and get him to come get her out of here. Looking one more time at the cart; she decided there was nothing left she could use. She’d found what looked like some strips of beef jerky, but they’d smelt so rancid that she’d left them where she’d found them. However, she did pick up a water skin and place it over her shoulder. Pulling her cloak around herself and tying back her hair, Faith looked up and down the track; one way looked pretty much like the other so she started out in the direction from which the cart had come.

0=0=0=0

It was after she’d been walking for maybe half an hour that Faith’s skin began to tingle with the promise of danger. Guessing she must be in a National Park somewhere in the States or Canada; there’d been no let up in the number of trees that hung over the track and it was too cold for South America, Faith had let her slayer instincts guide her. Feeling the presence of a dozen or more people paralleling her route, she continued to walk along the track. Halting for a moment Faith took a drink from the water skin, while at the same time taking the opportunity to look around under the dark trees. Seeing nothing, she could still sense her trackers tense and stop; watching her closely as she replaced the stopper in her water skin.

Turning to continue her journey she sensed the arrow fly through the air towards her, snatching it out of the air when it was no more than a hand’s breadth from her face, Faith cast the arrow aside and drew the dagger from her belt and turned to confront her attackers. Half a dozen large men with long swords and big oval shields ran at her from out of the trees.

“What the fuck?” Faith yelled in confusion as she lashed out at the closest man with her foot and brought him crashing to the ground.

Faith was beginning to think that she’d fallen into some weird re-enactor's game. These thoughts were hurriedly pushed to one side as a huge man covered in blue paint screamed at her as he charged, sword held high. Faith went low, rolling into the charging man’s legs and sent him flying. Bouncing to her feet again she had no time to finish off her first attacker when two more men came at her. Faith feinted left and attacked the man on her right. Grabbing him by the right wrist she used his sword to parry the attack of his partner, the swords crashed together sending sparks flying in all directions.

Faith realised that if she didn’t start killing these maniacs soon and evening the odds a little, she was going to end up dead; she smashed her fist into the windpipe of the man whose wrist she’d grabbed. As his eyes bulged in their sockets and his legs gave way under him, she took the sword from his limp hand and turned to confront the rest of the gang.

“Crap!” Faith found herself the centre of a semicircle of heavily armed madmen, “Oh crap,” she sighed resignedly before screaming as fiercely as she could and attacking her ambushers. Men screamed and swords clanged as Faith spun like a whirlwind through the gang. These guys were good, she admitted to herself, normally about now she’d be surrounded by dead or wounded opponents. This bunch were still standing and it started to dawn on her that if she wasn’t careful they would wear her down and kill her. It was just then that she heard the sound of horses’ hooves getting closer and closer.

0=0=0=0


	2. Chapter 2

2.

**A Forest in Gaul.**

“What’s what?” Vorenus cocked his head to listen.

“That!” the unmistakeable sound of a fight reached Pullo’s ears, he turned to Vorenus, “Come on, let’s have a look.”

“No,” Vorenus shook his head, “we’re on a mission…”

“Which you’ve already said is a ‘fool’s errand’,” Pullo pointed out reasonably, he drew his sword.

Vorenus admitted to himself that Pullo had a point, would it make any difference one way or another?

“Come on then,” Vorenus drew his own sword and kicked his horse into a canter.

“HA!” Pullo laughed, encouraging his horse forward. “Knew you’d see it my way!”

0=0=0=0

Faith realised she was losing the initiative; so far she had managed to kill only two of her assailants and wound a couple of others. The bandits, or whoever they were, had obviously expected a quick victory against a lone traveller. But, now she’d killed a couple of their gang the others, instead of running away which would have been the sensible thing to do, were trying to kill her out of the need for revenge.

They pressed in around Faith preventing her from using her speed and agility; she promised herself that should she survive this fight she’d not let that happen again. The sound of horse’s hooves came to her ears; if this was reinforcements for the bandits she was really screwed. She parried yet another attack; the sword she’d taken from one of her attackers was far too unwieldy to fence with and if it hadn’t been for her slayer strength the bandits would have chopped her up some time ago.

There was a cry of dismay from the bandits as the horsemen crashed into the fight; Faith caught a glimpse of two men on horses with red cloaks flying in the wind. The bandits scattered before the horsemen and a feral grin spread across Faith’s lips. Now they would pay, with a yell of joy she fell on her erstwhile attackers now she had the space she could use her slayer super powers to the full.

0=0=0=0

“Useful lad to have in a fight,” Pullo commented as he wiped blood from his sword.

He sat on his horse as he watched as ‘the lad’ dispatched the last brigand, he and Vorenus had dispatched their fare share of Gauls but this ‘boy’ seemed to have taken the Gaul’s attack as a personal insult. Finally the last Gaul fell; his guts oozing from his belly to splatter onto the forest floor, Pullo couldn’t help but applaud.

“Well done!” he cried; a big grin on his face.

Vorenus brought his own horse to a halt next to Pullo’s.

“Indeed, well fought.” Vorenus looked down at the ‘boy’ who was examining the Gaulish sword he’d been using; seeing it was bent he threw it to one side. “Where are you going?” Vorenus glanced around to see Pullo had dismounted.

“Spoils.” Pullo replied simply as he started to search the dead for valuables. “Come on, lad,” he called to the stranger, “help yourself these won’t be needing it.”

0=0=0=0

After casting away the sword she’d been using, Faith studied the two riders who’d come to her aid. Once again she got that same odd feeling that she could remember people had dressed like this; she cursed herself for not being able to remember properly. The bigger of the two men got off his horse and started to loot the dead. In passing, Faith noticed that neither rider used stirrups; the big guy invited her to join him in searching the bodies for plunder.

“No thanks,” Faith walked over to the guy still on his horse, “Erm, thanks for the help back then. I’d have got ‘em all eventually. but…anyway...” she shrugged and felt slightly embarrassed at having to say the word, “...thanks.”

“It was no more than our duty,” replied the horseman with the reddish blonde hair, “Hurry up, Pullo, we’re still on a mission.”

Faith glanced around to where the big guy, Pullo, was pulling teeth from a corpse.

“Which is still a fool’s errand,” Pullo called back.

“Y’know where the nearest town is?” Faith looked up at the guy who was still on his horse, “I need to call my boss and get him to collect me.” 

Faith was still clinging to the hope that this was just some backward area of Wisconsin or something and if she could get to a town she’d be able to call Mayor Wilkins.

“Town?” ‘Horse guy’ laughed bitterly, “Town? There’s no town for miles in either direction…in fact there probably isn’t a proper town until you get back into Italy.”

“Italy!?!?” Faith’s voice squeaked in surprise, “Fuckin’ Italy?”

The guy on the horse looked puzzled and the big guy, Pullo, stopped his looting and stood up to look at her.

“Just who are you, boy?” demanded horse guy he sounded unsure of himself having heard Faith’s girlish outburst.

“Who the hell are you?” Faith demanded in return.

“I am Second Spear Centurion Licious Vorenus of the Prime Cohort of the Thirteenth Legion, and you will answer my question.”

“Look, Vorenus,” Pullo also sounded just a little confused, “calm down, can’t you tell the lad’s had a knock on the head? Addled his brains a bit.”

“Addled?” What the hell did addled mean? Damaged maybe? It was beginning to dawn on Faith that it might take longer than she expected to get back to Sunnydale, she looked up at the Vorenus guy, “Name’s, Faith, by the way.”

“Fidelia?” the two men chorused realising their earlier mistake; the ‘lad’ was in fact a girl.

“Yeah, Faith.” Faith repeated uncertainly, noticing how the men’s mouths didn’t form the right shape when saying her name. 

How freaking weird, not only had she ended up in Europe somehow; she could now magically speak the lingo, what a bonus! ‘Wow’ or ‘holy fuck’ depending on how you looked at things.

“Fidelia who?” Vorenus wanted to know, ignoring her comment, “Of what family.”

“Just Faith,” Faith was starting to get a little fed up with the questioning, “I ain’t big on family ties.”

“She’s a whore!” A lascivious grin spread across Pullo’s face, which faded as he looked at all corpses that littered the track, he coughed to cover his mistake, “Can’t you see Vorenus, she’s obviously a good Latin girl, you can tell by the way she speaks…”

“She speaks like a Rome street whore!” Vorenus never took his eyes off Faith.

“Yo!” Faith was starting to get real really pissed now, and just a little scared, “I’m not a hooker. Quit talkin’ about me like I wasn’t here.”

The two men looked at her as if she was some strange creature from Mars.

“Well she did kill all these Gauls,” Pullo pointed out, all the time thinking that if he could keep on the good side of this Fidelia girl he might just get to screw her tonight.

“But…” Vorenus opened his mouth to speak then shut it again.

What Pullo said was true; there where the bodies to prove it; maybe this strange and apparently lethal girl was an escaped gladiatrix, such a thing wasn’t impossible. Anyway whoever she was they couldn’t just leave her out here.

“Here,” he held out his hand to her, “you better come with us, you can ride behind me.”

After a moments hesitation Faith took the offered hand and vaulted up behind Vorenus.

“Pullo!” Vorenus called, the big man looked up at the officer, “Mount up, let’s be on our way.”

Reluctantly Pullo left the corpses and ambled over to his horse.

“Oh yes,” he muttered as he climbed aboard his horse’s back once more, “mustn’t waste time on our fool’s errand.”

0=0=0=0

“What’s this fool errand?” Faith wanted to know, she was sitting tight up behind Vorenus; she could tell that the soldier didn’t want to talk.

“Don’t mind him,” Pullo rode up next to the couple and grinned at his superior’s discomfort, “he’s got a pilum stuck up his arse.”

“A what?”

“Never mind,” Pullo rolled his eyes at Faith’s ignorance, he went on to explain, “after we beat the crap outta the Gauls and their Chief Vercingetorix. Some of the bastards sneaked into our camp and stole Caesar’s personal standard. Which Vorenus here,” Pullo jerked his thumb at his companion, “thinks we’ll never find.”

“So why are ya bothering?” Faith noted the name; Caesar surely they couldn’t mean the Roman guy, if they did she was totally screwed.

“Orders,” Vorenus breathed, “honour, things that you and Pullo obviously know nothing about.”

Faith and Pullo shared a knowing look. To Faith, Vorenus was starting to sound a lot like ‘B’, and it was beginning to be obvious to Faith that had Pullo known Buffy he’d think the same.

“So girl,” it was Vorenus who spoke, “where do you come from?”

“Boston originally,” Faith watched as the two men exchanged uncomprehending looks.

“Never heard of it,” Pullo scratched the back of his head. “are all the girls like you in this Boston place?”

“Nah,” Faith smiled to herself, “I’m special.”

“Hey!” a light came on in Pullo’s eyes, “You must be one of those Amazon women the Greeks all go on about.”

“That’s a myth,” announced Vorenus with all the certainty of the semi-educated, “It’s a story that the pansy Greeks made up to explain why they’re frightened of women and only screw little boys!”

Pullo let out a bark of laugher, as Faith sniggered behind Vorenus’s back, she was starting to like these two, they were her type of people.

0=0=0=0

They made camp at about first dusk in a small clearing just off the main track. Faith, being unused to riding was glad to get down from the horse. The three busied themselves collecting fire wood, building a fire and tending to the horses.

“What’s there to eat?” Faith asked.

“Porridge again,” Pullo replied morosely.

“Screw that!” Faith didn’t like the idea of oatmeal, “Have either of you got a bow or something?”

The two men looked at her blankly.

“So I can catch us something better,” Faith explained.

“Don’t be foolish,” Vorenus sighed, “you’ll never catch anything in here,” he gestured to the surrounding trees and underbrush.

Faith stood up and pulled her dagger from its sheath and threw it up in the air before catching it by the blade.

“Wanna bet?” she grinned mischievously at the two soldiers.

0=0=0=0

The remains of the small deer that Faith had killed, roasted over the fire as Pullo explained what he was going to do when he eventually got back to Rome. His plan seemed to involve visiting every brothel in the city.

“Do you think of ‘nothing’ but women?” Vorenus wanted to know.

”What else is there?” Pullo stopped to think about this for a moment, “Food, I s'pose.”

Faith laughed and snorted wine down her nose, coughing she fell back onto her cloak.

“When was the last time you had a woman,” Vorenus asked, “who wasn’t crying and begging for mercy or expecting payment?”

Pullo shrugged and mumbled something around a mouthful of venison. “He’s got a wife he hasn't seen in eight years.” explained Pullo gesturing to Vorenus, “The man's terrified.”

”He must be lookin’ forward to seeing her.” Faith was enjoying talking about someone else it took her mind off here own worries.

”Talk of something else!” Vorenus snarled angrily.

“What if she's lost her teeth?” Pullo continued as if Vorenus hadn’t spoken, he grinned at Faith, “What if she's got skinny, or if she's been letting other men get between her legs?”

”Silence!” Vorenus ordered.

Faith and Pullo shared a smirk.

“You have the first watch,” Vorenus rolled himself in his cloak, “wake me when the moon is at its zenith.”

“Oh thank-you so much,” sarcasm dripped from Pullo’s mouth he looked over at Faith, “What about you and me?” Pullo nodded towards the trees, “You know, just to pass the time.”

Pullo felt the dagger press against his neck, he’d not actually seen the girl, Fidelia, move, but there she was pressing her knife to his throat with a murderous glint in her eye.

“Alright,” he said being careful not to move too much against the knife point, “if you don’t want to, that’s alright too.”

Slowly Faith removed her knife from Pullo’s throat and went back to her place by the fire. At some point in the future maybe she would screw the big guy, but not tonight; she had to make it very plain that she wasn’t just for the taking. Rolling herself in her cloak as she’d seen Vorenus do in his; Faith lay down to sleep but kept her dagger close to hand.

0=0=0=0

Faith awoke to the sound of horses being ridden away at high speed. Peeping out from under her cloak she saw Vorenus running after the horses and yelling ‘Halt’ uselessly at the fast disappearing riders. By the time she’d stood up and checked her surroundings for danger the Centurion had returned to the camp-site.

“Fortune pisses on me once more!” he spat and threw himself down on his cloak, “Not only do I get sent on a fool’s mission, but the horses get stolen by children!” He turned his anger onto Pullo, “And why didn’t you wake me before you fell asleep?” 

Next he looked at Faith he was just about to say something when she cut him off.

“Don’t say a word!” there was just a hint of menace in Faith’s voice, “I never asked to be here and I never asked you for help so don’t try and blame me for anything.”

“She’s right y’know,” Pullo stood up and scratched his crotch before turning and pissing against a tree, “and you did said we couldn’t leave her out here.”

“I did not!” Vorenus’s voice grew in volume, “It was your idea ‘cause you thought she was a whore!”

“Ah! But you were thinking it,” Pullo knelt down by the smouldering fire and used his knife to cut a strip of meat off the deer carcass that still hung there, “I just put your thoughts into words.”

“Now you claim to read my mind!” Vorenus’ face was turning red with anger as the two men argued.

Faith smiled to herself as she turned away from the two soldiers, Pullo wasn’t as stupid as he made himself out to be. He'd cleverly distracted Vorenus from the question of not being woken up for guard duty, to a pointless argument over who’s idea it had been to bring her along. Shaking her head in amusement she walked off into the trees.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Vorenus yelled after her.

“Where do you think?” Faith didn’t bother to stop or look back at the camp when she answered.

“Oh!” Vorenus’ voice faded to a mumble, “Well don’t take too long.”

0=0=0=0

It was mid morning when they came across the caravan. The three travellers had come around a tight bend in the track and had seen the convoy crossing an open area in front of them, quickly they’d dodged behind some bushes. There were three carts and maybe a dozen Gauls walking by, or riding on the carts, one small cart was being pulled by a teenage boy with blond curly hair; a Gaul beat him with a stick as he struggled with the cart.

“Nice horse,” Pullo commented, pointing to a magnificent white stallion with a richly made saddle and saddle cloth.

“Too good for the likes of him,” Vorenus agreed eyeing the raggedly dressed Gaul who rode the horse.

At some unspoken signal the two soldiers drew their swords and charged screaming at the convoy. Faith hesitated for a moment before drawing her knife and following Vorenus and Pullo into the fight. At first the Gauls stood and fought. The man on the horse tried to ride Pullo down but the big soldier dodged under the horse and jumped up on the other side dragging the rider from the saddle. Vorenus fought two men with spears first disarming them before dispatching them with quick, savage thrusts of his short sword.

Faith found herself facing a man with a long sword and a shield, he laughed at her as she came at him with her knife held low. The smile left his face when Faith easily dodged the swing he aimed at her head and her shoulder slammed into his shield knocking him to the ground. The Gaul scrambled onto his hands and knees trying to regain his feet. Faith was on him in a flash grabbing hold of the man’s long greasy hair and pulling back his head, she slipped the dagger under his chin and slit his throat with one easy movement.

Dropping her victim Faith looked up to see another Gaul charging at her with a spear held in both hands, the tribesman yelled some incomprehensible warcry as he came at her. Again Faith dodged past the attack, this time she took hold of the spear shaft and pulled. The Gaul, taken by surprise, stumbled and collided with Faith’s foot as she kicked out at the man’s knee. Screaming in pain from his shattered kneecap the Gaul rolled about in agony on the grass. Leaping on top of him, Faith landed astride his chest and buried her dagger up to the hilt in his throat. Climbing easily to her feet once more, Faith looked around for more victims only to find that Vorenus and Pullo had dispatched most of the other tribesmen; two or three could be seen running for their lives towards the safety of the trees. 

Seeing there were no more enemies to fight, Pullo got down to the serious business of looting the dead. Vorenus went around kicking the downed Gauls and dispatching any who weren’t quite as dead as they should be. While the men were so engaged, Faith walked over to where the blond teenage boy lay between the shafts of the cart he’d been forced to pull; she nudged him with her foot. The boy looked up suddenly making her jump back with surprise.

“Untie me!” he demanded.

“Bit mouthy for a slave,” Pullo observed as he and Vorenus wandered over to stand next to Faith.

“Keep a civil tongue in your head if you don’t want to be beaten, slave,” Vorenus ordered.

The boy looked desperately from one man to the other then held out his bound hands to Faith.

“I am Gaius Octavian of the Julii,” announced the boy full of his own importance. “Great nephew of Julius Caesar.”

“Gaius who?” Faith looked to Vorenus and Pullo hoping for an explanation and there was that ‘Caesar’ name again.

”I'm a Roman citizen of noble birth, and I order you to cut these ropes,” a note of desperation entered the boy’s voice.

“Say please,” Faith grinned malevolently down at the boy.

“Please.”

Slipping her dagger between the boy’s wrists, Faith cut the ropes that bound him. Octavian climbed slowly to his feet and looked around for a moment until his eyes fall on what he is looking for. Picking up a long sturdy club that was lying in the grass where it had fallen, he walked over to the groaning form of the man who’d been making him pull the cart. Raising the club above his head he started to beat the prostrate Gaul with the club. Octavian only stopped hitting the Gaul when the man’s skull cracked open and his brains oozed onto the ground.

Taking her cue from Vorenus and Pullo, Faith helped herself to the contents of the pouches of the two Gauls she had killed and added a well made short sword and a heavy cloak to her possessions. The four eventually stood around the cart that was significantly better made than the other two in the convoy. Faith listened with half an ear as the two soldiers and the youth talked rapidly about Vorenus’ and Pullo’s mission. It soon became apparent to Faith that the youth, Octavian, was who he claimed to be, and that he was more than a little surprised that the two soldiers had been sent on such a meaningless mission. 

The name of Caesar kept cropping up in the conversation, once again Faith got the feeling that this was the name of someone who was alive and not just a figure from history. Already she’d half convinced herself that she was either not on Earth or had been transported to a different plain of reality; she had vague recollections about her watcher talking about stuff like this. Standing by the cart, Faith did her best to tune out all the talking, she was sure she’d heard something move inside the cart.

“SHHH!” Faith hissed holding up her hand for silence.

“Don’t ‘Shhh’ me, woman!” Octavian turned angrily toward Faith as her arm struck out snake quick between the curtains of cart.

With a gentle grunt Faith heaved a bald, fat man out of the cart and onto the ground at her feet.

“Now what do we have here?” Faith drew her knife and knelt down next to ‘baldy’; pricking his throat with the point of her knife.

“One of Pompey’s slaves,” Vorenus pointed to a tattoo on the side of the man’s bald head.

The slave gave out a strangled cry and tried to crawl away from the vicious woman with the knife. As no one said anything, Faith let him go and watched as he staggered to his feet and made a break for freedom. At the same time Pullo, with a looter’s instincts, had taken a heavy bundle from the interior of the cart. Some of the wrapping fell away to reveal a large golden eagle.

“Caesar’s standard!” Pullo exclaimed.

“STOP HIM!” Octavian pointed after the fleeing slave, “We’ll need proof that this was Pompey’s doing!”

While Octavian was speaking Vorenus picked up a fallen spear and threw it at the running man. The spear flew through the air and hit the slave in the upper back, with a faint cry, he fell to the ground.

Standing stock still Faith’s eyes were riveted to the eagle; it was all coming back to her now. The school history lessons when she had been little, the old movies she’d watched on wet Saturday afternoons. How could she have been so dumb and not realised it before? Feeling her knees go weak as a wave of dizziness hit her Faith sat down heavily on the cold damp ground.

“Huh!” she gasped looking up at Pullo and Octavian who were staring down at her with puzzled frowns on their faces.

“What’s wrong, my honey?” Pullo asked kindly as he crouched down in front of her.

“Crap!” Faith gasped and then with increasing annoyance, “Crap! Crap! CRAP!”

Vorenus rejoined the group after cutting the head off the dead slave; he carried it under his left arm as he walked over to look at Faith.

“What’s wrong with her?”

Pullo climbed back to his feet and rubbed the top of his head.

“Women’s problems,” Pullo replied knowingly.

0=0=0=0


	3. Chapter 3

3.

**Rome, three years later.**

Watching from a dark corner at the back of the wine shop, Faith kept a careful watch on the door. Her information was that the vampire visited this shop fairly regularly and would most likely turn-up tonight. Staring into her wine cup as she lifted it to her lips, she realised she hardly ever thought of herself as ‘Faith’ anymore; she was Fidelia Venetrix, the hunter of beasts, now.

After falling in with Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo that day in a Gaulish forest she’d gone back with them to Caesar’s camp. True she had been handsomely rewarded for being in on the rescue of Caesar’s nephew Octavian, but she could tell her presence was unsettling the Romans. The truth was they didn’t know how to react to her, she certainly didn’t fit into any of the stereotypes of Roman womanhood that they were comfortable with.

Obviously she wasn’t a ‘Lady’ or other respectable woman, and neither was she a whore, as several soldiers found out to their cost. Her presence in the camp was causing unrest and more than a few fights. So, it was with some relief, that Vorenus and Pullo watched her leave camp on a borrowed horse a week or two after her arrival into the world of the past.

Riding into northern Italy, Faith had learnt the ins and outs of horsemanship as she went along, a painful but mercifully short process. At first she lived on the gold that she had been given for the rescue of Octavian but she soon realised that this money wouldn’t last forever, she needed to find a job and find one soon.

Smiling, Faith remembered she’d been sitting in a wine shop rather like this one and she’d been deep in thought considering her options. Having no wish to become a whore or someone’s wife, she also didn’t like the idea of turning to crime; she’d noticed that Roman justice was swift and very unpleasant. The only trade she knew was slaying and although she’d dusted a few vampires on her travels it wasn’t something she could make into a paying career.

Lost in thought she hadn’t noticed the drunken creep stagger over to where she was sitting. He’d grabbed her by the arm and tried to pull her to her feet, almost without thinking, Faith had punched the drunk sending him flying over the tables knocking wine and bowls of olives onto the floor. A general melee ensued with Faith holding her ground hurling opponents across the room, it had been the most fun she’d had in a long time.

After the fight had petered out, Faith had sat down again to finish her wine, it was then that she was approached by a fat, middle-aged, sweaty man, Faith had seen his type before. He probably wanted to fuck her and she was just about to throw the creep out onto the street when he made her a most interesting business proposition. Galerious, as the man called himself, was what in the modern world might be called a ‘fight promoter’. It appeared that Romans would pay good money to watch a young woman, such as Faith, beat the crap out of people; there being no television to watch.

After taking the man up on his offer, Faith soon started to make a name for herself; she’d have to put on a fight three or four times a week in some public place. As her opponents were mostly untrained thugs, Faith looked on this as little more than a useful workout. It was only when she started to have to fight armed men that she started to suspect Galerious’s motives and honesty; she might be poorly educated but she wasn’t stupid. After one particularly bloody fight when she’d killed her opponent; she beat her share of the profits out of Galerious and moved on to the next town. 

And so it went, moving from town to town fighting for money as the need arose and dusting any vampires as she came across them. It was after about a year of this that Faith started to specialise in fighting beasts. It had begun after she had killed a bear that had escaped from its owner. The poor creature was old and half blind, its claws and teeth were broken and blunt and it had been so badly maltreated by its owner that Faith felt she was doing it a favour by putting the animal out of its misery. However, the town’s people didn’t see it that way; they cheered and threw coins and basically wanted more.

So she stopped fighting men and became, Fidelia Venetrix, hunter and fighter of beasts, which, Faith thought grimly, neatly described her slaying duties. It also meant that she needn't fight people any more. For all of her bravado she’d never meant to kill the Deputy Mayor back in Sunnydale. Her claim that she didn’t care had just been an act; she did care, she cared deeply the whole sorry affair had been a reaction to Buffy’s ‘holier than thou’ attitude. It’d been the guy’s fault anyway; what did he expect to happen? Jumping out of the shadows like that…what was a girl supposed to think? Murdering the professor guy? Well, the sleazy bastard was probably a pervert to the co-eds under him anyways, all men were.

But that was all in the past now; or in the future depending on how you looked at it, that was a different Faith. She was Fidelia now; she was comfortably well-off and only had to kill people occasionally, and even then only as a public service taking her turn executing murderers and the like. Nowadays she put on specialist combats at the homes of rich people who wanted to bring a little excitement into their lives. Fighting against mountain lions, bears and on occasion wolves, Fidelia was popular and in demand by all the right people, it was all so different from her life in Sunnydale. Tonight, however, she was after a vampire, and she was beginning to think that he was going to be a no show.

0=0=0=0

The only fly in Faith’s wine was that she was lonely, she missed talking to someone about films or music or anyone of a thousand things she’d taken for granted up-time. Even her usual outlet of casual sex was closed to her; there was way too much risk of an unwanted pregnancy for her to chance it. So it was with something approaching pleasure that she saw a man she knew walk into the wine shop. Titus Pullo strolled in off the street and sat down at a table where some local toughs were playing dice.

Standing up to go over and get reacquainted, Faith felt the familiar tingle at the back of her brain that warned of a vampire. From her vantage point she glanced quickly towards the door. Sure enough there he stood; a typical vamp. Well dressed (far too well dressed for this part of town) dripping with jewellery and of course the archetypal sardonic smile that played around his lips as he surveyed the room.

Faith frowned to herself; this was just her luck, see someone that you haven’t seen in years and would actually like to see again, and what happens? Some vamp turns up to ruin your plans. Looking over to where Pullo sat she saw that he was deeply involved with his game of dice, he’d likely be there for some time. Okay, she could dust the vamp, do it quick and then be back to pass the time of day with Pullo before he got too drunk and got himself thrown out onto the street.

Standing up Faith adjusted her dress so it fell away from her shoulder and exposed a little more of her cleavage than it would normally. Next she checked the stake in its pocket that she'd so laboriously sewn into this dress as she'd done on as every other piece of clothing she owned. Everything was in place and she looked enough like a prostitute to throw the vamp off guard long enough for her to get him outside and dust him. Pushing her way through the crowd Faith came up behind her mark as he stood at the counter drinking, she tapped him on the shoulder; he turned around and grinned evilly down at her.

“Ya wanna come outside?” Faith asked running her hand down from her hair and between her breasts.

“Get away from me woman,” the vamp tried to push her aside.

“Great,” Faith sighed quietly, “just my luck to get the only gay vamp in Rome,” Aloud she asked, “You Greek then? I know where there’s some nice tight assed boys if ya want.”

The vampire turned away and tried to ignore her. Hades! Faith wondered what it would take to get this vamp’s attention, she decided to try the direct approach again. Once more she tapped him on the shoulder, this time he turned quick as lightning and snarled into her face.

“I said be gone!” he growled.

“Hey,” Faith slapped the vamp on the shoulder, “just what does it take for a girl to get herself bitten around here?”

Thinking he’d been insulted by some foreign whore the vampire lost his temper and grabbed Faith by the wrist and dragged her towards the door. Once out in the darkened street the vampire pushed her against the wall and held her there as he brought his fangs towards her neck. Bracing herself against the wall Faith pushed, sending the vampire stumbling across the narrow street to crash into the wall opposite.

By the time the vampire had collected his wits and started to regain his feet, Faith had hitched up the hem of her dress and aimed a roundhouse kick at the vamps head. Her sandalled foot caught the vampire on the side of the head sending him spinning along the street. Recovering her balance she hopped towards the stunned creature of the night wishing, not for the first time, that she still had her boots. Even her hobnailed sandals that she wore in the arena were better for kicking things than the light weight ones she wore tonight. Again the vampire struggled to his feet, but before he could launch any form of counter-attack Faith was on him pummelling the hapless creature until he was once more prostrate on the ground before her. Jumping on the fanged menace she pulled her stake from its hiding place and plunged it into the vampire’s heart. Exploding into dust the vamp left little trace of himself ever having existed.

“F’Christ’s sake!” Faith cursed as she climbed back to her feet, “Why is it all their stuff vanishes when they die?” 

The vampire’s rings alone would have paid her rent for half a year, turning at a sound Faith saw a couple of street urchins starring wide eyed at her from behind a small cart.

“Do you guys know?” Faith asked the frightened children, they took a step away from her, “Here,” she reached into her purse and threw a couple of small coins to the children; they scrambled in the dirt to find them, “Now, get outta here!” The kids ran off down the alley.

0=0=0=0

By the time Faith had gone back into the wine shop, Pullo was fully engrossed in his game of dice which he appeared to be losing…badly. Watching as the pile of coins in front of Pullo got smaller and smaller she kept in the background and sipped her wine. No one could be that bad at dice, she thought as she studied the players around Pullo. There were four maybe five roughs, they all looked as if they knew each other. It was plain to her that if Pullo noticed he was being cheated the four would jump on the soldier and Pullo would end up as yet another nameless corpse in a Roman sewer.

Realising that Pullo would probably need a friend in the not too distant future, Faith kept to the shadows and gave no sign that she knew big man. Why should she bother herself with this guy she asked herself as she watched the coins in front of Pullo disappear with monotonous regularity? The answer was simply that Pullo and to a lesser extent his friend Vorenus had befriended her and helped her when they didn’t really need to. Neither of them had expected payment of any kind for doing so. It was one of the things she hated about her new life, people expected to be paid for the smallest of favours.

A drop in the ambient noise level warned Faith that something was wrong, her eyes flicked to where Pullo played dice. The big soldier held the hand of the man opposite him in his huge fist. With little seeming effort he twisted the man’s hand so his palm was turned upward and you could see the extra pair of dice in the swindlers hand. Pullo and the swindler exchanged words as the other men around the table shifted position making it easier for them to pull out weapons and attack Pullo. Faith began to push herself towards the little group around the table.

When he moved, Pullo did it so fast that even Faith didn’t see exactly what had happened. One moment everything was still; the next Pullo’s knife was sticking out of the back of the swindler’s neck and the room exploded into chaos. Pullo ripped his knife from the villain’s throat and pushed over the table as he stood up. Whores and drinkers tried to get as far away from the fight as the small wine shop allowed frustrating Faith’s attempts to get to Pullo’s side. Calling out to him, she didn’t think he heard. Pullo stabbed another man in the belly as he made for the door knocking over an oil lamp as he went.

The oil burst into flame as the lamp shattered on the stone floor, women screamed and men yelled. Faith kicked and punched several bystanders aside as she followed Pullo’s movements across the wine shop. By the time she’d got within shouting distance again Pullo had almost reached the door. Snatching up another lamp Pullo turned, and as he did so his eyes locked with Faith’s, it only took an instant for recognition to jog the soldier’s memory. He smiled that familiar devil-may-care grin of his at her before dashing the lamp on the floor. As the oil flared into life, Faith noticed the man behind Pullo. Roaring his defiance at the room Pullo was just about to make his escape; but, he never saw the thug lift the wine jug and bring it down on his head until it was too late.

“PULLO!” Faith pushed the last few people between her and her target out of her way as the thug raised a knife to finish off Pullo once and for all.

In an instant Faith was standing over Pullo’s body, she struck the thug on the tip of his nose with the palm of her hand, driving the bone up into the man’s brain and killing him instantly. As the ruffian crumpled to the floor, Faith bent and placed her hands under Pullo’s arms. Lifting the big man easily she dragged him outside onto the street. By the light of the burning oil she noticed what looked like a dent in the back of the soldier’s head.

“Damn-it!” she cursed as she half carried, half dragged Pullo down the alley, amazingly he appeared to be semi-conscious, a blow like that would have put even her down. “Right, where the fuck do I take ya?” she demanded as the dazed man groaned loudly.

“Vorenus…” Gasped Pullo rolling his head from side to side.

“Yeah, okay,” Faith stopped and looked at her injured friend, “where does Vorenus live?” Pullo groaned again but gave her no answer.

0=0=0=0

By the time she found someone who knew where Lucius Vorenus the Centurion lived it was almost dawn. Paying off her guide, Faith was astounded to find that Pullo was still alive. However, she still expected to be paying for his funeral rites by the end of the day. Dragging herself and the injured man into the courtyard of the house where she was told Vorenus lived she looked around. This was a proper house with at least two floors; experience told her that Vorenus would live in the apartment on the first floor. Taking a firmer grip on Pullo she started to drag him up the stairs. Normally she would have carried him, but as she’d been lugging him around most of the night this was the best she could manage. Although the stairs felt like they went on forever she eventually got herself and Pullo to the top where she dumped him on the floor. Her eyes scanned the apartment to see a long dimly lit room sparsely furnished with solid wooden furniture.

“VORENUS!” She yelled, by now she didn’t care who she woke up, “Lucius Vorenus!” 

Faith called again just as an attractive, dark haired, woman appeared around a pillar and screamed, seconds later Vorenus emerged from behind a curtain that blocked off an alcove at the end of the apartment.

“What the…” he began as his eyes fell on Faith.

“Vorenus,” Faith stood to one side to let him get a look at the body on the floor, “It’s your friend Pullo he needs a doctor.”

“Run and get a doctor!” Vorenus snapped at the woman.

“I don’t want people dying in my house,” the woman replied, “who is this man?” 

As usual Faith found herself being ignored.

“Do as I say, woman!” Vorenus barked as he stepped forward to help Pullo.

Stepping to one side Faith let the woman pass as she ran out of the door, before helping Vorenus carry Pullo over to a big heavy table in the centre of the room. Heaving the big man onto the table Vorenus glanced at Faith.

“Thank-you for helping my friend,” Vorenus turned and snatched a few coins from a nearby shelf, he held the money out to her, “Here take these and go.” 

“Fuck ya money,” Faith snapped angrily, “don’t ya remember me?”

Vorenus looked up from Pullo’s groaning form, and for the first time really looked at the strange woman in his apartment, the light of recognition slowly came to his eyes.

“So you took up whoring after all,” Vorenus tossed the coins aside and bent to examine the wound on the back of Pullo’s head.

“What is it with you people and whores?” Faith demanded angrily, she looked down at herself and realised how Vorenus had come to his conclusion, she changed the subject quickly. “Someone hit him on the head with a wine jar,” she explained as she straightened her dress, tying the laces that held the top of her dress up so it didn’t expose so much flesh. 

Sometimes Romans could be a really straight laced bunch. Vorenus gave a half smile that just screamed ‘yeah right’ as he stood up and regarded Faith, obviously he’d decided he couldn’t help Pullo until the doctor turned up.

“So if you’re not a whore,” Vorenus walked over to a large jar that stood on a shelf by a window, “What do you do now…If I remember rightly you never seemed like the sort to live on the public dole?” He drew two cups of water from the jar and handed one to Faith.

“I’m called Fidelia Venetrix now,” Faith announced proudly after taking a swig of the cool water, “I fight beasts for a living.”

“A gladiatrix?” Vorenus shook his head in disgust, “That’s almost as bad as being a whore or an actress.”

“Screw you, Vorenus!” Faith turned to leave slamming the cup down on the table.

“Wait!” Vorenus ordered, causing Faith to pause and glance back over her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” Vorenus hung his head, if not in shame then maybe in sorrow, “You helped Pullo and all I can do is insult you…I’m sorry.”

“That musta hurt,” Faith muttered as she turned to face Vorenus once again.

“Don’t mock me,” Vorenus leant against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Home coming not as happy as you thought it’d be?” Faith walked over to the table and sat down on the bench next to it.

Pulling open one of Pullo’s eyelids she looked closely, the big guy was out for the count. Before Vorenus could answer, the doctor, his assistant and the woman from earlier arrived.

0=0=0=0

Faith watched in a mixture of fascination and horror as the doctor cut into Pullo’s head. They had tied Pullo to the table and put a leather gag in his mouth so he wouldn’t bite off his tongue. The doctor had brought a clamp to hold Pullo’s head still and the table had been wedged so that Pullo’s head was level with the doctor’s chest. It seemed to Faith that the entire street had crowded into the apartment to watch the show.

Vorenus and the woman Faith now knew to be his wife stood to one side while their two daughters sat on stools and watched the operation enthralled. Groaning loudly, Pullo fought against his bonds as the doctor started to drill into his skull. Faith had to admit to some curiosity; in her time in Roman Italy she’d not had to call on the services of the local doctors. Her slayer metabolism fought off diseases and infections easily enough; any work related wounds quickly healed leaving only faint scares which eventually faded to nothing. Wincing as the drill crunched through Pullo’s skull she thanked whatever gods that might be listening that she was a slayer and was possessed of a particularly thick skull.

The doctor eventually removed his drill leaving a hole in Pullo’s head about two inches across; he peered into the hole to examine Pullo’s brain. The doctor made a ‘Ha!’ sound and picked up a pair of long bronze tweezers, carefully he picked a piece of bone from Pullo’s brain. Seemingly satisfied with his work the doctor produced a silver disc and started to rivet it over the hole in Pullo’s skull. It was at this point that Pullo finally lost consciousness.

Getting up from her ring side seat, Faith walked over to where Vorenus was standing.

“Hey,” she tapped him on the shoulder, “look I’ve got to be somewhere, will it be alright if I come back later to see if the big lug’s okay?”

“Yes,” Vorenus got a dirty look from his wife as he spoke, he seemed not to notice. “Maybe you’d like to tell me what you’ve been doing since I last saw you…” Vorenus tried to smile.

If looks could kill Vorenus’s wife would have been up in front of the magistrate charged with Faith’s murder.

0=0=0=0

“What misery,” complained Vorenus’s wife, Niobe as she scrubbed the table clean of blood; everyone had gone now leaving the apartment to Vorenus and his family.

“Its only blood,” Vorenus strode passed her to collect his cloak preparatory to going out, Faith having left sometime before, “it’ll wash.”

“Who was that whore?” Niobe demanded of her husband’s back as he headed for the door.

Turning Vorenus snapped at his wife, “She’s no whore!” He wagged his finger angrily at Niobe, “She’s someone Pullo and I met in Gaul. I understand that you’re upset, but I will ask you; do not question me in that tone.” Vorenus turned and headed out the door leaving his wife to mutter angrily under her breath.

“Tone?” she walked back to the table to continue her scrubbing, “MY FATHER’S COCK!” she yelled, “How’s that for tone!”

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

4: 

**In the Arena.**

Slamming her attacker into the wooden wall of the arena, Faith stood back to watch him fall. A she-wolf’s grin spread across her lips as she turned to face her next opponent. This was nothing more than an exhibition bout with wooden weapons where no one was supposed to get seriously hurt. Faith watched the four remaining gladiators with disdain and let out a quiet laugh. The gladiators reminded her of WWF wrestlers from her own time, they were little more than street rats full of bluff and bluster. They were all right at killing terrified criminals or fighting each other, but if they came up against a real killer like Fidelia Venetrix they were hopelessly outclassed.

A man with a helmet and shield moved in to attack her with his sword; Faith dodged the clumsy sword thrust and used her own sword to knock the weapon out of the man’s hand. Suddenly finding himself disarmed he tried to back off, but Faith let her sword drop to hang from the thong around her wrist and grabbed the man’s shield with both hands and twisted. The swordsman found his shield arm being twisted painfully as Faith slowly started to dislocate his shoulder, he cried out his submission and she let him go before watching him crawl away across the sand.

Swinging her sword back into her hand, Faith waited for someone else to attack her, the three remaining uninjured gladiators watched her warily and waited for someone else to do something. Faith knew she could disable or even kill these assholes in about thirty seconds flat, but that was not what the rich, old men in the seats that surrounded the small arena had paid to see. No, they had come to see the half naked barbarian girl match herself against four or five of Rome’s best gladiators.

Eventually one of her opponents plucked up enough courage to attack her, Faith turned to face him while watching the other two out of the corner of her eye. They seemed willing to let their comrade do the work alone for now. The ‘brave guy’ was armed with a trident and net, the trident was a clumsy weapon and it didn’t bother Faith, it was the net she was wary of. ‘Brave-guy’ stabbed at her with his trident, raising her sword Faith blocked the attack only to have her weapon twisted out of her hand. Watching it spin across the arena as the thong snapped, Faith was left unarmed. The audience cheered, and the two unengaged gladiators decided that now was a good time to attack this upstart barbarian whore.

Faster than the eye could easily follow, Faith took hold of the trident and pulled. ‘Brave-guy’, taken by surprise, allowed himself to be pulled towards her. Too late did he realise that maybe that wasn’t the brightest thing in the world to do. He tried to bring his net around to catch the barbarian woman in its folds. Realising he’d left it too late he tried to break away, but he moved too slowly. His eyes went wide as he saw Faith’s small fist headed towards his face, an instant later his world turned black.

Spinning away from her latest victim, Faith was just in time to kick the man with the two swords in the crutch, he fell to his knees clutching his crotch and groaning loudly. Turning around again, Faith’s other foot caught him under the chin sending him crashing the rest of the way to the sand. Faith turned on her final opponent and smiled at the frightened man. He was another sword and shield man and he watched Faith cautiously over the top of his shield as she slowly backed him towards the arena wall. The men in the gallery yelled advice or ribald comments, depending on how they'd laid their bets. The swordsman’s eyes flicked left and right looking for an escape route as Faith continued to advance on him. Finally he bumped into the wall, realising there was no escape he screamed and charged at her.

Turning away from the attack Faith took hold of the man’s out stretched sword arm; she pulled and twisted at the same time. Unbalanced the swordsman fell to the sand with her still hanging on to his arm; he tried to punch at her knee with his shield. Countering the move before it had even really started she slammed a foot down on the man’s shield pinning him to the ground. Taking a firm hold on the swordsman’s wrist Faith twisted it sharply until she heard the bone snap. Letting go of the injured gladiator she stepped away from the man as he writhed in pain on the sand.

Having beaten all her opponents, Faith raised her arms to acknowledge the applause of the audience; some cheered her, others clapped politely; some even threw her coins. Jumping lithely up and down as if in celebration, Faith made her breasts bounce provocatively; this earned her a few more coins. As the applause started to die away she bent to pick the coins. While she was doing this she surreptitiously cast her eye over the crowd. There were a few men she recognised from earlier visits to this private arena, and there were a few more men she knew from seeing them in the public forum. Wasn’t that the famous Pompey, she asked herself as she headed for the exit? The old general was in deep discussion with another man, Faith searched her mind for the younger man’s name. It wasn’t until she had reached the ‘dressing room’ that she remembered; Cicero! That was his name, the local equivalent of a slimy politician.

Pouring water over her head, Faith started to rub herself down with a towel, god how she missed hot showers. Chuckling to herself she wondered what those two sneaky, politician, bastards were cooking up, nothing good that was for sure. Pulling on her dress, it was the one she’d been wearing the night before. She’d only had time to go back to her rooms and pick up her fighting gear before heading off to the arena. Stuffing her loincloth, big leather belt and her heavy sandals into her bag Faith headed off to get her prize money from the promoter.

0=0=0=0

“Sucks about the wrist, man,” Faith stood over the sword and shield man she’d injured.

The other gladiators had only been knocked out and would be on their feet again with nothing but their pride wounded. This guy would be out of work for several weeks until his wrist was strong enough for him to fight again; Faith actually felt a little guilty, it’d been un-necessary breaking his wrist like that.

“My own fault,” the gladiator winced as the arena doctor put his wrist in a splint, “should have known better…I’ve seen you fight before.”

Faith couldn’t believe she gave enough of a damn to ask, “Ya gotta enough money to last ya?”

“Yeah, no worries,” the gladiator grinned up at her, “but if you take my advice…” Faith nodded, “...I’d watch your back for a day or two, those other guys,” he jerked his head in the direction of where the other four gladiators sat trying to clear their addled brains, “I don’t think they took too kindly to being beaten by a woman…me? I’m getting used to it by now.” His laugh was cut short by a wince of pain as the doctor strapped up his wrist.

“Thanks,” Faith glanced over at the other fighters, “here,” she called to the doctor flipping him a silver coin, “make sure you do a good job.” Turning back to the man on the table she rested her hand on his shoulder, “look after y’self, friend.”

“Don’t worry I will,” he called to Faith’s back as she headed out the door; next time he met her in the arena he was going to be a lot more careful…like not being there in the first place.

0=0=0=0

Walking through the narrow twisting alleyways of Rome, Faith headed back to her rooms. After nearly two years of living here she knew every back alley and street like she'd been born there. In fact she knew Rome better than she’d ever known Sunnydale or even her hometown of Boston. When she’d first arrived in Rome, Faith had been more than a little disappointed; she’d expected to see grand, blindingly white marble buildings like she’d seen in the movies. What she actually found was a dirty, smelly rambling slum of a place. Even the important buildings looked a little rundown and dilapidated, for a short while she actually thought she’d ended up in some other town and Rome was further on. Even the rich villas where she fought for the entertainment of the upper classes looked rather shabby on the outside. Inside they were quite impressive in their own way, but outside…the paint was flaking from the walls where it wasn’t covered in graffiti, and each villa had its own high wall and thick set of doors to keep the mob at bay.

Finding herself outside her own building, Faith climbed up to her apartment along the staircase that clung precariously to the side of the wall. Her rooms were on the second floor, taking the key from around her neck she unlocked the door and pushed it open carefully. Even with a lock on her door it was foolish to just assume no one had got in and were stealing your belongings. Seeing and sensing no danger, Faith walked in and threw her bag on the floor, she could clean her gear later.

Faith’s rooms, as has been noted, were on the second floor of her building. There was a large room about fifteen feet by twelve which she used as a living room and kitchen. At the back of this room there was another smaller room, an alcove really, where she slept. The walls were newly painted with whitewash and the floors were clean, scrubbed, wood. She’d chosen the few pieces of furniture she had because they reminded her a little of the furniture she’d had in her apartment in Sunnydale. There was a closet where she kept her weapons and another were she hung her clothes. A table dominated the middle of the room with a bench on either side. There was a dresser where she kept her cups, plates and cooking implements, not that she did much in the way of cooking. Her prize possession was a couch that rested along the wall under the windows. Some rich bastard was throwing it out just as Faith was walking by, she’d paid the household slaves to carry it to her room. Now she had somewhere to sit, or more properly lie and watch the world go by. The walls of her living room where hung with souvenirs of her three years in the ancient world, she’d even managed to put up some shelves to display her keepsakes; something the Romans didn’t appear to do. 

Slipping out of her dress she held it up to the light, “Damn,” she breathed seeing the flecks of Pullo’s blood on the material. With no modern detergents blood was a pain in the ass to get out of clothing…she’d let her washerwoman do what she could with it, clothes were too expensive to just throw away. Drawing some water from a large earthenware jar into a bowl, Faith started to wipe the last vestiges of the olive oil and sand from her skin and once more wistfully remembered hot showers and soap. There were other things she missed, like her stereo and computer games, her TV, she even missed reading comics. She missed going to MacDonald’s, coffee, Coke; sometimes the choice of either water or wine could almost make her weep for all the things she’d lost. 

Throwing her dress into the corner of her room where the other clothes that needed washing waited for her to take to the laundry woman, Faith opened her clothes closet and tried to decide what she should wear. The choice was limited but sometimes Faith liked to pretend that she had lots of nice things to wear, she mentally added ‘clothes’ to her list of things she missed. Pulling some garments from the closet she tossed them onto the table before closing the closet door and starting to get dressed.

To her surprise Faith had discovered that the Romans had something that looked amazingly like a bikini which she would sometimes wear as underwear. She pulled on britches much like the ones she had worn when she had first arrived in the past. Next she pulled on a dress that she’d had modified. The idea had come from the costume Vietnamese women wore, modified to fit in with Roman fashion. Basically she wore a Roman dress that had been slit up the sides to allow her free movement with her legs, her britches covered her legs and made her look less like a local hooker, and if she wore the dress and britches in the same colour, no one noticed unless they looked closely. Adding a few bracelets and a simple belt to hang her purse from, Faith hid her favourite wide bladed dagger in the folds of her dress and turned around; she added full length mirrors to the ever growing list of things she missed. Picking up her key she headed for the door and her next appointment.

0=0=0=0

After a meal of bread, cheese and olives, Faith made her way through the winding alleyways to the slave market. Pushing her way through the crowd of dealers and prospective customers until she got to the northwest corner of the square. There under an awning sat Marius Arsenius working at his desk. Faith had done business with Marius since she'd first arrived in Rome, he was the closest thing to a watcher that she had and he was one of the few people in Rome that Faith really counted as a friend. He was reasonably honest and very shrewd; Marius paid with coins of full weight and had been known to add a bonus for a particularly exceptional piece of work.

As he had grown older, Marius who was now in his late thirties, found solace in the comforts of his slowly accumulated wealth. While the heavyset body of his youth might now be taking on a veneer of softness; he’d not forgotten that he had attained his wealth through hard work. Thus he made a point of being at his office in the square at dawn, whether or not a new shipment of slaves was expected. A wide smile split the Roman’s habitually serious face as he looked up and saw Faith approach.

“Fidelia, my dove!” he got up from his stool and rushed to greet Faith with open arms.

“Hi Marius,” Faith allowed the older man to clasp her by the shoulders and kiss her on both cheeks; she noted how he smelt faintly of perfume, Faith stepped slightly away from Marius to look him up and down, “No shit, but ya smell like ya latest mistress’ bedchamber, man.” 

“Ha!” Marius let out a short bark of laughter, “You’ve caught me out again!” He smiled as he put an arm around Faith’s shoulder and led her under the awning and out of the hot sun. “Of course if you but marry me, as I keep asking, I would give up all my mistresses…you could have anything you wanted.” The pair sat down on a couple of stools and Marius signalled to one of his slaves to bring them water. “A villa by the sea, jewels, silks, slaves, gold…anything, just say you’ll be mine.”

“Never work out,” Faith drank gratefully from the cup of cool water she’d been given, “One day ya eye would wander and I’d have to slit ya throat, never been big on sharing what’s mine.”

“No doubt you’re right,” Marius shook his head sadly, “You would expect any husband to live up to your name, he would truly have to be ‘faithful’ or face the consequences.” The slave dealer sighed regretfully and looked down at the floor for a moment before asking, “So my dear, sweet, murderous Fidelia, did you deal with the bloodsucking nightwalker?”

“Of course,” Faith finished her water and put the cup down on Marius’ desk, “Hardly broke a sweat, the vampires ‘round here aren't much of a challenge. Got anything else that needs slaying?”

“No,” Marius shook his head but Faith could see he was troubled.

“Come on spit it out, you old crook,” she encouraged. 

“It may be nothing,” a frown crossed Marius’ face. “One of my contacts was brought to me badly beaten and near death the day before yesterday. He awoke only for a short time before he died…”

“Did he say who did it?” Faith wanted to know.

“No…no,” for a moment Marius sat in puzzled silence as if trying to work out whether he should bother Faith with what could well be nothing, “He just said, ‘beware the Ides of March’, and died…most inconsiderate.”

“The Ides of March?” Faith asked, not owning a clue as to what the phrase meant.

“Yes it’s a tavern outside the city on the road north.” Marius shrugged and held out his arms.

“Means nothing to me,” Faith admitted, “I can ask around for ya if ya want?”

“Yes that might be an idea,” Marius stroked his chin, “if the word got around that people can beat and kill my ‘clients’ without retribution being visited on them, I would lose all respect in this city…yes, Fidelia, look into it for me and do whatever you think fit.”

“Sure thing, Marius, I’ll get on to it tomorrow.”

“Now, tell me how did the job I gave you for this morning go?” Marius leant back on his stool and rested his back against his desk; he loved to hear of Faith’s exploits in the arena.

Faith gave him a blow by blow account of the fight with the five gladiators and ended by handing him a small purse of coins.

“That’s your tenth share.” Faith held the purse out to Marius.

“No-no,” The dealer waved the purse away, “Keep it as a down payment for dealing with my other little problem.”

“Trying to buy my affections by being generous, huh?” Faith shrugged and retied the purse to her belt, “Still hoping I’ll marry you?”

“No,” Marius admitted with a wistful smile, “I intend to keep asking until you get bored and agree just to shut me up.”

“Never happen.” Faith laughed and reached under her dress, “For the ‘Fidelia retirement fund’,” she explained handing Marius a heavier purse, the dealer took the purse and placed it under the lid of his desk.

“Your trust in me is most heart warming.” Marius knew that if he was to ever double cross the beast killer he would wake up one night with a knife at his throat. 

“Any work?” Faith referred to her job in Rome’s entertainment industry.

“Nothing this week,” Marius admitted sadly, “but maybe the next. A great lady is having an important dinner party and wants something special for the after dinner entertainment. How do you feel about bears?”

“Bears are good,” Faith agreed with a nod, “is there a special on bears this week?”

“HA!” Laughed Marius slapping his leg, “How did you know? An associate of mine has more bears than he knows what to do with; they’re eating him out of house and home. So, this week I am pushing bears.”

“Well, careful they don’t push back,” Faith smiled and stood up, “let me know the details, and I’ll look into that other little problem for you.”

“Leaving so soon?”

“‘Fraid so,” Faith started to walk back out into the sunshine, “I need to see a sick friend.”

“Whatever you ‘friend’ is offering you,” Marius called as Faith made her way back towards the main part of the square, “remember I can double it!”

Faith waved over her shoulder and headed off towards Vorenus’ house.

0=0=0=0

When Faith arrived at Vorenus’ home, Pullo had still been unconscious and didn’t look like waking up anytime soon, so she and Vorenus sat out in the courtyard and shared some wine and got reacquainted under the baleful eye of Niobe, Vorenus’ wife. After swapping war stories and getting more than a little drunk, Vorenus stared into his wine cup and sighed.

“You’re a woman?” Vorenus asked morosely.

“Last time I checked,” Faith agreed as she looked over top of her wine cup at the soldier.

“Don’t mock me,” Vorenus pleaded, he took a deep breath, “I have a question.”

“If it’s the one about where babies come from, ask your wife.” Faith giggled girlishly and then looked at the wine in her cup in horror, it must be stronger than she realised.

“No!” Despite himself Vorenus smiled, “No…no, you’re a woman right?” Faith nodded her head, “An-and you know how women think right?”

Faith gave a non-committal shrug, how other women thought was probably as big a mystery to her as it was to Vorenus. Faith had no idea what had gone through B’s mind most of the time and she was a slayer. How could she be expected to know how a normal woman thought?

“Why does my wife hate me so?”

For once Faith didn’t say the first thing that entered her mind; telling your host that his wife hated him because he was a stuck up jerk was a good way of getting your wine supply cut off. Instead she asked him; “Do you tell her she’s beautiful, even when she’d not?” Faith felt she was on safe ground here, most women liked to be told they were beautiful, not that she ever fell for all that romantic crap.

“You think I should tell her that?” Vorenus poured more wine.

“Couldn’t hurt,” Faith replied wisely.

“Should I tell her now?” Vorenus opened his mouth to shout.

“SHHHH!” Faith waved him into silence, “Remember she’s not a cohort of soldiers…tell her in the morning,” A memory bubbled to the surface of Faith’s mind, “Flowers!” She hiccupped, “Chicks love being given flowers.” Faith drained her cup.

“Do you like flowers?” Vorenus stared deeply into Faith’s eyes.

“Fuck off,” she slurred belligerently, “any sleaze-bag greasing up to me with a floral tribute risks getting his dick ripped off!”

“Then why should I give Niobe flowers?”

“Is she likely to cut your dick off?” Faith poured the dregs from the wine jar into their cups.

“No,” Vorenus shook his head before adding, “I don’t think so.”

“There ya go then,” Faith reached across the table and patted Vorenus on the shoulder, “The way to Niobe’s heart is flowers…mark my words…oh yeah, and when ya have coitus her,” Faith paused for a moment wondering if that was the right word, “yeah coitus…there's a spot just above her cunny, stroke it and she’ll be more into ya stroking in her,” Faith leered lewdly at Vorenus. 

”How do you know this about her?” Vorenus demanded trying to get to his feet but failing, he slumped back down on his bench. 

“ _All_ women have them!” Shocked Faith looked around for more wine, “I've got one, not that it gets much action from anyone but me these days,” she added miserably; Faith discarded the now empty jug, “ask anyone…not about me having one but…” belching loudly Faith giggled, “...but you know in general…okay?”

The sound of snoring came from Vorenus’ side of the table.

“Yeah, you sleep on it,” Faith nodded wisely as her own head drifted down to rest on the table.

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

5: 

**Crepusculum ad Aurora.** *

*Dusk to Dawn.

Raising her head slowly from where it rested on the table Faith really wished she hadn’t. The early morning sunlight lanced through her eyelids and woke the little demons inside her head who started pounding on the inside of her skull with their big hammers. Groaning loudly, Faith held her head between her hands because she was frightened that if she didn’t it might fall off.

Needing to pee and then stick her head under some cold water Faith moved and regretted it. The world spun around her and those bastard demons redoubled their efforts with even bigger hammers. Stumbling into the corner of the yard, she pulled down her britches and squatted to relieved herself. Having dealt with the first task of the day, Faith went in search of water. Hearing water running somewhere, she remembered that the courtyard contained its own water supply. Using her slayer hearing, and thus delaying for a few more blissful minutes the moment she would have to open her eyes fully, she found the water and immersed her head in the cooling liquid.

The water soothed her head and must have drowned some of her demon tormentors as the banging in her head went down a couple of notches. Coming up for air she rested her hands against the wall and let the water play over the back of her head and neck as it issued from the pipe in the wall. As she stood there letting the cold water do its work Faith reflected that this was exactly why she only drank watered wine. 

Wringing the water from her hair Faith looked around for a cup or a jug. Seeing a jug she picked it up and filled it with water and drank thirstily. Sighing heavily she slumped down on a handy stool, almost feeling super-human again; there were only a couple of demons left in her head now and they must have got tired because they could only manage a few half-heated blows with their hammers. Why did she let herself do this to herself? Faith looked up as she heard footsteps approach, Niobe stood before her with a bowl in her hand.

“Here,” she held the bowl towards Faith, “eat this and then go.”

“Thanks,” Faith mumbled as she took the bowl from the woman, “nothin’ happened y’know, I’m not trying to steal ya husband.” 

Spooning some porridge into her mouth she fought with her stomach as it rebelled against the food. Niobe looked down at her disbelievingly, Faith felt she had to justify herself.

“We were just shooting the breeze, alright?” Faith could tell that Niobe wasn’t falling for a word of what she said, “He needed someone to talk to that’s all and I happened to be here…okay?”

“If my husband needs to talk to someone why doesn’t he talk to me?” Anger and sadness played across Niobe’s face as she stood over Faith.

“Maybe he’s frightened to.” Faith looked up into Niobe’s unbelieving face; she shrugged her shoulders and handed the bowl back to Niobe, “Maybe he forgot how to…if he ever knew.” Faith shook her head and winced as renewed pain shot up her neck and bounced around the inside of her head, “Thanks for the food.” Vorenus sounded a total dud in the sack. Climbing unsteadily to her feet Faith looked at Niobe, “Me and ya husband, really not an item…” 

Getting no answer Faith stumbled towards the street, her head didn’t hurt quite as badly as it had and she had a job to do for Marius. She’d go home lie down for an hour or two then go out and try to find this ‘Ides of March’ place, what could be simpler?

0=0=0=0

Waking at about the fifth hour Faith washed and dressed in some fresh clothes. Eating some stale bread she made a mental note that she really should do some shopping someday soon. Slipping a stake into her pocket and hiding her favourite knife under her dress she walked out into the heat and noise of a late Roman summer. Strolling through the crowds she headed for the house of a senator, one Ludicrus Sextus, she was looking for information and she knew just the man to speak to.

Walking around a street corner, Faith saw her informant; a middle-aged male slave listlessly sweeping the street in front of the senator’s house. The slave stood nearly six feet tall; he had thin white legs protruding from the bottom of his tunic which was in the colours of the Sextus’ household. Walking over to where the man worked she listened for half a minute as the slave muttered to himself complaining about his lot in life.

“Hey Lurcio,” Faith smiled as the man turned to face her.

“Greetings, domina,” Lurcio grimaced when he saw who’d spoken to him. “How may I serve?” The man rolled his eyes and mumbled a short prayer to one of Rome’s many deities. 

“I need information,” Faith picked at a loose piece of plaster as she leant against the villa’s wall.

“Of course, domina,” grovelled Lurcio, “please take a seat.” The slave gestured to a marble fountain that stood in the middle of the crossroads outside the Sextus’ villa.

Walking over to the fountain followed by the slave, Faith sat down on the cold marble bench and sighed, it was surprisingly cool in the fountain’s shade; Lurcio sat down next to her.

“Gawds!” Exclaimed the slave with a gasp as he seated himself on the cold marble, “That’s enough to give you piles,” he eyed Faith as if it was all her fault, “all right,” he added in a much less servile tone, “what do you want to know?”

“The Ides of March,” Faith began, “it’s a tavern north of here, what do you know?”

“Ides of March?” Lurcio nodded as he stroked his chin, “A place of ill fame, or so I’m told.”

“Ill fame?” Faith prompted, “As in?”

“Death, young domina!” Lurcio hissed dramatically and shook his head, “You don’t want to be going anywhere near there, oh no.”

“Come on, Lurcio,” Faith laughed disbelievingly, “stop screwing ‘round, tell me what ya know.” 

“Titter ye not, domina,” Lurcio looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, “They do say…”

“They?” interrupted Faith.

“Do you want to hear this story or not?” Lurcio asked sounding a little hurt.

“Sure.”

“Well, shut up and pin your ears back…right where was I?”

“They were saying,” Faith encouraged.

“Yes, right,” Lurcio shifted his position on the bench, “they do say…”

“We’ve done that bit,” Faith pointed out and got the foulest of looks from the slave.

“They do say,” Lurcio repeated pointedly, “that if you take a cup of wine at the ‘Ides of March’ you may never live to tell the tale.”

“They poison people and steal their goods?” Faith asked wanting clarification.

“Oh no, young domina,” again Lurcio looked around again to see if they were being over heard, “Much, much worse than that.”

“They kill people?” Faith suggested.

“In a manner of speaking,” replied the slave mysteriously.

Faith sighed; getting information out of Lurcio was harder than getting blood out of a stone. Her head still hurt from the night before and she didn’t really have the time to be pissing about like this. Hands blurred as she pulled her knife and pricked Lurcio’s throat with the tip. The slave screamed like an old woman as he stared into Faith’s tired eyes.

“Tell me everything,” Faith snarled menacingly, “and tell it to me now.”

“Oooh no, domina!” Lurcio pleaded, “They do say they drink your blood,” the words came out in a rapid whisper as Lurcio tried to get away from the sharp end of the knife, “and do all manner of unspeakable acts on any unfortunate traveller that stops there to rest.”

“What sort of ‘unspeakable acts’?” Faith wanted to know.

“I don’t know,” Lurcio wailed, “no one said, they were unspeakable!” 

“Oh…yeah,” Faith released her grip on Lurcio and put away her knife; this must be bad because a Roman’s idea of ‘unspeakable’ was pretty much…unspeakable. “How do I get to this place, how far is it?”

“Take the road north from the Porta Collina,” Lurcio explained as he rubbed his throat, “It’s about two hours walk, you can’t miss it.”

“Right,” Faith stood up, “I guess I’d better see what’s going down,” she threw Lurcio a coin which he snatched out of the air.

“Woe, woe and thrice woe!” Wailed an old woman, dressed in rags, as she wandered across the road waving her arms about above her head.

“Oh no…its Senna the soothsayer,” Lurcio groaned and shook his head, “what do you want, you silly old bag?”

“BEWARE!” The soothsayer pointed knowingly at Faith, “Beware the Ides of March, Fidelia Venetrix, for death awaits you there!”

“Oh don’t mind her, domina,” reassured Lurcio, “she’s just a mad old bat.”

“No kidding,” Faith eyed the soothsayer suspiciously as she turned towards the Porta Collina and started to walk.

“Salutia!” Lurcio called to Faith’s departing back as he raised two fingers in a timeless salute.

“Yeah right.” Faith replied absently as she walked off down the road towards the city gate, she was never quite sure whether the slave was insulting her or not.

0=0=0=0

As it turned out it was getting on towards dusk before Faith came into view of the tavern, The Ides of March hadn’t been as easy to find as everyone suggested. First there were two roads leading north from the Porta Collina and of course Faith had taken the wrong one. It had taken about an hour before she realised her mistake and she’d had to cut across some fields and vineyards before picking up the other road. No way was she going to go all the way back to Rome.

After stumbling her way through olive groves and vineyards, Faith decided that it might well have been better to have gone back to Rome after all. She was starting to feel hungry and thirsty and was beginning to wonder why, with all her other special abilities, slayers didn’t have some sort of highly developed sense of direction. It was as she was thinking these thoughts that she came around a bend in the track (by now she was off the main road) and the tavern came into view.

Walking off the track Faith stood behind one of the trees that lined the road and studied the inn. The building must have once been a large villa before it had been turned into a country tavern. There was a gateway large enough to accommodate a farm cart in the villa’s wall. A few wisps of smoke rose from inside the tavern but other than that there was no signs of life; not even any chickens scratching in the dusty road outside.

Scratching the back of her head Faith tried to puzzle out what was going on here. The tavern was well off the main road to Rome, if anything it was well hidden from the casual traveller so where did its customers come from? Faith was thinking these thoughts and wishing she had gone to bed instead of staying up drinking all night with Vorenus, when the answer walked into view. Crouching down behind the tree she watched as a small caravan consisting of a couple of small wagons and a horse drawn litter like one used to transport an important lady came along the track way towards the tavern. A few slaves walked beside the wagons which here being led to the building by a man who was obviously a guide.

So that’s how they did it, Faith nodded to herself, have a man down on the main road and have him entice some weary travellers to follow him to an oh-so comfortable inn and wham! Your victims walk straight into your trap. Looking up at the sky, Faith, realised that the sun had gone down and she’d not really noticed. This happened to her quite often, with no electric lights to dazzle her eyes, she often didn’t notice it had gone dark until quite late in the evening, her slayer eyesight adapting itself to the darkness without her really noticing.

The guide banged on the door, and a few heartbeats later the gate was swung open and the convoy was directed into the tavern’ courtyard. A big man dressed as a guard handed the guide a few coins, or so Faith suspected; the guide then scurried off into the darkness. Over the next hour or two several other travellers were led to the tavern and shown inside.

When Faith looked at the guard as he lounged by the opened gate she got that familiar odd tingling sensation at the back of her brain that told her there were vampires close by. Moving through the dark she flitted closer to the tavern using the trees along the track for cover, the closer she got the stronger became the vamp-vibe. Her ears began to pick up the sound of music and laughter as it drifted up into the night air from inside the building.

What to do? Faith asked herself, she could easily climb the wall scramble across the roof and jump unseen into the courtyard. Then she could start a fire as a diversion and hustle the victims out to safety in the confusion after which she could come back during the day and burn the place down while the vampires slept. Yes, that was the sensible thing to do…but it wasn’t much ‘fun’.

0=0=0=0

The vampire guarding the gate warmed his hands over a small brazier, as Faith walked brazenly along the track towards the tavern; the vampire looked up at her as she approached.

“What do you want, woman?” He hitched up his belt from which hung a short sword or long dagger; he licked his lips in ill concealed lust as he looked Faith up and down.

“Looking for work,” Faith replied shortly as she walked over to the vampire; as she did so she caught a glimpse of the tavern’s interior where an orgy looked as if it was in full swing.

“What sort of work?” The vampire wanted to know, Faith stood within an arm's length of the creature now.

“What do you think?” Faith closed with the vamp and as she distracted him by rubbing her groin against his leg she slipped her stake into her hand and plunged it into the vamp’s back and through into his heart.

Faith almost laughed out loud at the surprised look on the vampire’s face as he turned to dust. Easing her dress off her shoulders a little, she wandered through the gate and into the courtyard. Here a large fire blazed and erotic dancers writhed and gyrated in and out of the shadows. Sitting on a raised dais was a rich looking merchant and his wife or mistress, there were several other travellers evident as they sat and drank around the fire; of the merchant’s slaves there was no sign.

“Hey you!” 

Faith turned to see another vampire guard stride towards her out of the shadows.

“What are you doing in here?” he stopped a couple of feet away from Faith but made no move to grab her.

“You friend on the gate said I should come in,” Faith’s fingers played with the neckline of her dress pulling it down even further, the vamps eyes were riveted to her chest, “I’m lookin’ for work.”

“Work is it?” the vampire threw his head back and laughed, “We’ll see what the boss has to say about that.” He grabbed Faith by the arm and pulled her towards the rear of the dais.

“So what’s the boss’s name?” Faith asked as she let herself be manhandled vampire.

The shadows of the dancers cast weird shapes across the walls of the one time villa as the music got louder and faster. Faith noticed that the merchant and his woman were now slumped against each other as the effects of the wine and drugs they'd been fed took effect, any moment now the real entertainment for the night would begin.

“He’s just ‘Boss’, understand?” the guard pulled her towards a door that led into the main part of the building.

“Yeah alright,” Faith wonder just how many vampires ‘lived’ at this place and if she could deal with them all, her musings were cut short as she was pulled into the presence of ‘The Boss’.

“Boss?” called the guard vamp, he looked around the cluttered room, “Got one here looking for work, she’s a pretty one too.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” said a voice like old parchment, as a tall cadaverous vampire stepped out of the shadows cast by the many lamps placed around the room, “Leave us.” he ordered and the guard scurried quickly from the room.

Faith turned to face the boss vamp and winced when she saw the skeletal figure.

“You would do well to be fearful of me, mortal,” in an instant the vampire stood in front of her and ran its hand down the line of her cheek. 

Faith’s skin crawled at the sandpaper touch of his hand, she forced a smile. 

“Its not fear,” Faith explained, “its just that earlier today a soothsayer told me death waited for me here,” a genuine smile spread across Faith’s face, “and, man, was she right.”

Before the vampire could react he’d turned to dust that slowly drifted towards the floor. Faith ran to the door and cautiously looked out into the courtyard.

“Damnit!” she cursed, well it couldn’t be helped, not now, the vampires had started to feed on the merchant, his woman and the other travellers, “maybe I can save the slaves.” she told herself as she quickly re-crossed the room. “Because hey, I’m so fuckin’ noble these days.”

As Faith had suspected there was another way out of the vampire's lair, picking up a lamp she plunged into the darkness of the room beyond. Crossing that chamber she came out into a kitchen where two female vampires busied themselves draining the blood from a small boy.

“Catch!” Faith threw the lamp at one of the vamps.

The first vampire screamed as she instinctively tried to catch the lamp only to be covered in burning oil before exploding into flames that consumed her body in an instant. The second vampire looked up in shock. Picking up a huge meat cleaver, Faith used it to cut the vampire’s head from her body, pausing for a moment she watched as the vamp-dust drifted to the floor. Knelling down by the boy she felt for a pulse, nothing; he was dead. Standing up and dusting off her hands she looked around the kitchen, seeing nothing dangerous in the dancing firelight, she started to look for the slaves that she was trying to save.

Closing her eyes she concentrated and listened. It only took a moment for her to home in on the muffled whimpers coming from somewhere off to her right. Striding across the room Faith found the slaves locked in a cellar under the kitchen. Pulling the bolt back she heaved open the trapdoor and called down to the terrified vamp-food telling them to run for their lives. After pushing the fearful creatures towards another door Faith headed back towards the courtyard.

0=0=0=0

Standing in the shadow of a pillar, Faith counted the vamps.

“Thirteen,” she grinned, “unlucky for some.” stepping out into the firelight she shouted to get their attention, “YO GUYS!” she yelled, “Dinner’s escaping!” Faith jerked her thumb over her shoulder.

The vampires looked up from their meal, blood still dripping from their lips and they glared at Faith in anger at being disturbed. Suddenly the courtyard was full of movement as the vampires jumped to their feet and moved towards her, she laughed in their faces as they approached.

Faith dusted three in the first rush; the vampires came at her in an undisciplined mob getting in each other’s way in their eagerness to taste her blood. For a moment the vamps stopped in confusion at having three of their number so easily killed. In the time they hesitated two more of their band blew away on the breeze; by the time they'd regained their wits Faith had vanished into the dancing shadows.

Looking down from the roof that overhung the courtyard, Faith watched as the vampires searched for her in vain. This was so much better than the bawdy theatre that the Romans enjoyed so much. Hooking her feet into a gap between two tiles Faith reached over the edge of the roof and grabbed a passing vampire by the head, she twisted the bloodsucker's head sharply to the left and felt its neck break under her hand. Sliding forward off the roof she rolled onto the ground and ran across the courtyard before coming to a halt to face the remaining seven vampires. Brushing vamp dust from her clothes she called out to attract the attention of the surviving vampires.

“Hey! Once in a lifetime offer,” Faith eyed the vampires insolently as they spread out to surround her, “just to make it interesting and to give you guys a chance I’ll dust the rest of ya with one arm behind my back,” with a yell one of the vampires charged at her, “or not.” 

Faith kicked the vamp’s legs from under him and had her stake in his heart before he had even fallen to the ground. Laughing at the remaining six vampires Faith goaded them into attacking her; they all met the same dusty fate as their fellows.

“Fidelia Venetrix strikes again!” Faith cheered herself and looked around the silent, empty courtyard for some wine.

Finding a jug she sniffed at it, it didn’t smell drugged, so she took a sip. It tasted alright so she sat on a pile of cushions and drank deeply washing the dust and ash from her mouth. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, Faith laughed again and shook her head. The vampires hadn’t stood a chance against her; they'd lost before they had even started to fight. Faith picked up a handful of vamp dust and let it trickle through her fingers.

“Didn’t stand a chance, man,” she took another swig of wine, “two thousand years of evolution killed you,” she told the dust.

Even in her own time a slayer was faster and stronger than all but the oldest of vampires. Against these ‘ancient’ vampires it was just too easy for a twenty-first century slayer to deal with first century vampires. In the eternal contest between vampire and slayer both sides had naturally improved over the centuries, as slayers improved so only the strongest vampires survived long enough to sire more vampires. Then the slayer line would have to improve to counter the tougher, stronger vamps, it was simply natural selection at work and Faith had a two thousand year start on the locals so…she just left them in the dust. 

Laughing at her own joke Faith got up and closed the gates before walking back to the cushions. Making a nest for herself she took another swing of wine before curling up and falling asleep, she would search the place tomorrow before she went home.

0=0=0=0


	6. Chapter 6

6\. 

**A Slave Market in Rome.**

“Fidelia my honey!” Marius Arsenius rose from behind his desk and wrapped Faith in a warm embrace, “What brings you to my humble place of work at this hour?” 

Letting go of her Marius glanced up at the sky to judge the time; it was in fact early afternoon. Allowing herself to be kissed, Faith was led to her usual place under the awning in the slave market. A slave brought her water and a bowl of bread and olives was placed on a low table between the two friends.

“What new adventures has my sweet Fidelia Venetrix been up to today?” Marius turned and shooed his Greek scribe away, he wanted Faith all to himself.

“Ides of March,” Faith began after drinking some water, “it no longer exists.”

“What?” Marius eyes grew round with surprise.

“Yeah, I burnt it down,” Faith put an olive in her mouth and soaked up some oil with a piece of bread before eating it.

“Fidelia,” Marius appeared to be at a loss at what to say, “although I appreciate the thought, the man that they beat and killed wasn’t that important. I was thinking of some form of retribution that wasn’t so…so final?”

“Nightwalkers,” Faith replied simply, as she ate more bread and oil, it was after all very good bread, “nearly twenty of the fuckers.”

“Ah,” Marius leaned back against his desk, “what am I thinking of? Giving you water like this...this news calls for wine…” Marius opened his mouth to call to his slaves to bring wine.

“No, I’m good,” Faith held up her hand to forestall Marius’ call, “water’s fine.”

Shrugging Marius called for wine for himself anyway.

“Tell me everything,” Marius licked his lips in anticipation and leant towards Faith so as not to miss a single word, “leave nothing out.”

So Faith began, over the months of working with Marius she had become quite an accomplished story teller, weaving her tales of her night time activities or her combats in the arena into adventure stories that had Marius sitting on the edge of his stool. Getting to the climax of her battle with the vampires Faith noticed how large Marius’ erection had become, no doubt one of his slave girls would be getting a thorough servicing tonight. Although there was a certain ‘Ewww’ factor here, Faith found herself a little jealous of that unnamed slave girl, but then all she had to do was to say she’d marry Marius; she found herself thinking, would that be so bad? After all she wasn’t getting any younger and she’d have to give up the beast killing one day, why not take Marius up on his offer. So, he got turned on by her telling him stories of how she’d killed things, while to the twenty-first century Faith this was a little sick; to first century B.C. Faith, it was nice to see how much you were appreciated.

As she came to the end of her tale Marius picked up and drained his wine cup, Faith smiled to herself, Marius’ slave emporium would be closing early tonight. Picking up a large leather satchel she placed it on her lap and busied herself opening it while Marius rearranged his clothing to hide his erection.

“Here,” Faith placed half a dozen purses on the floor between them; each purse chinked with the promise of the riches held within, “I ‘found’ these before I burnt the place down.”

Marius snatched up one of the purses and opened it, he smiled at the contents.

“Fidelia, love of my life, do the others,” he indicated the other purses, “hold the same as this one?”

“To the nearest coin,” Faith nodded, “except that one,” she pointed to a purse she’d placed slightly to one side, “that one has all the jewels I could find in it.”

Marius placed the first purse on the ground and picked up the one containing the jewels; taking out a gold ring he studied it carefully.

“I’m no expert,” he began as he turned the ring over in his hand, “but I would say, my young and beautiful she-wolf, that you are a very rich woman.”

Smiling resignedly, Faith shrugged her shoulders, she’d never thought about being rich before, she’d always lived a hand to mouth existence. Coming to Rome was the only time, apart from when Wilkins was looking out for her, that she’d ever been well off enough to live somewhere decent (if you could call a joint with no indoor plumbing decent) and not have to worry where her next meal was coming from.

“What are you going to do with your new found wealth?” Faith could see the calculating look in Marius’ eyes.

“Not sure,” she watched Marius’ expression carefully, “I might retire,” she saw his face drop, “or I might invest it.” Faith saw the hope and greed burn anew in Marius’ soul, “Whatever I do I’m not making any decisions today, I’m tired, I could sleep for a week.” 

Standing up Faith stretched lithely, now all she could see in Marius’ eyes was lust, smiling a little she knew her new found wealth was safe with the merchant, he wanted her body more than he wanted her money.

“For now,” Faith stifled a yawn, “stick it with the other stuff and we’ll talk about it later, okay?”

Marius nodded eagerly as he put the purses out of sight.

“You’re entitled to your usual commission by the way,” added Faith, “after all I was on a job for you.”

“No, no,” Marius waved his hands dismissively, “I’ll wave the commission for now…after we’ve talked more, maybe then.”

“Whatever,” Faith turned to go, “I’m going home, see y’tomorrow.”

Adjusting the position of her knife and drawing her shoulders back, Faith once again strode out into the hurly-burly of Rome’s streets and headed towards her bed.

0=0=0=0

After a meal of roast pork, bread and fruit, Faith washed the dust of the day from her tired body and lay down on her bed. Pulling the blanket over her naked body she closed her eyes to sleep but found herself thinking of Mayor Wilkins. She’d not really thought about him in months, and she wondered what had happened to him, or what would happen to him…whatever, time travel made her head hurt. Had he managed to defeat Buffy and her Scooby gang and become a full blown demon? Or had the little bitch pulled something out of the bag at the last moment to defeat him?

Turning over to face the wall Faith found she didn’t care anymore. Okay, Wilkins was the only person who had ever cared about her and not really wanted anything other than loyalty in return. Maybe he had ‘loved’ her in the same way as a father was supposed to love his daughter. Faith found herself lying on her back staring at the ceiling; the shadows got longer as it got darker outside, and Buffy was she really that bad? Alright so she was a bitch, but if tomorrow she had Buffy’s great-great-whatever grandfather on the end of her sword, would she kill him so there’d be no Buffy? But then of course they’d be no Buffy to fight and she’d never fall off the roof to land in Gaul, so she wouldn’t end up in Rome to kill Buffy’s granddad so…

Groaning, Faith sort of wished she’d not skipped school so much and anyway knowing her luck, Buffy would be eternal. Whatever she did in the past there would always be a Buffy or someone like her. The thought chilled her to the bone and she gave an involuntary shiver. Maybe if she could find one of those Greek philosopher guys, she could ask him. Faith yawned, all this heavy duty thinking was making her eyelids grow heavy where not having slept properly for two nights hadn’t. Eventually, Faith drifted off to sleep and dreamed of wiping out all of Buffy’s ancestors from the beginning of time. Smiling in her sleep at these blood soaked dreams and as Rome settled down for another night Faith looked forward to a new day.

0=0=0=0

Waking refreshed, and having slaughtered numerous generations of the Summers family in her dreams, Faith dressed and decided that now would be a good time to do some housework. After a breakfast of cold pork and bread, she emptied the last of the water from her water amphora and set out for the neighbourhood well. As she walked the short distance to the well it occurred to her that she could afford to live in a villa somewhere and have slaves to do this sort of thing for her, she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

Slaves, when they belonged to other people, she could pretend that they were just servants, but to actually own someone herself that was something else completely. Her thoughts were interrupted by the noise of the crowd of people around the well. Looking up she saw several men tie ropes around some handy pillars, while another tied the other end of the rope around his waist. Coming up to the rear of the crowd Faith saw a woman she sometimes passed the time of day with, she walked over and tapped her on the shoulder.

“What’s goin’ on?” Faith asked putting down her amphora and resting it against the wall where the woman stood.

“What?” the woman turned to look at Faith, she was a typical Roman housewife, called Rissa. “Oh it’s you, Fidelia,” she pointed at the well as one of the men was lowered over the lip, “some arsehole dumped a body down there last night! Now the waters spoilt, it’ll be days before its fit to drink again…assuming that those jokers can get it out this side of winter.” 

Rissa tutted and rolled her eyes in disgust.

“Damn!” muttered Faith darkly, “Assholes, don’t they know that’s what the sewers are for?”

“It’ll be those filthy Gauls,” the woman crossed her arms under her ample bust, “you mark my words…dirty foreigners coming here taking all the work and dumping bodies in wells…” suddenly Rissa remembered who she was talking to, “not that you’re dirty…you’re…”

“Don’t sweat it, Rissa,” Faith replied with a half smile trying to put the woman back at ease.

“Its just I forget you’re not a true Roman,” the woman confessed, “I meant nothing by it,” she added hurriedly.

Most everyone in Faith’s neighbourhood knew who she was and what she did for a living and were quietly proud to have the famous Fidelia Venetrix living nearby. It also made the streets safer as no thief or cut throat wanted to risk getting on the wrong side of her or trying to rob her by mistake.

“Nearest drinking water is in the Street of Potters, right?” Faith picked up her amphora.

“That’s right,” Rissa nodded.

“Right I’m going there I’ve got things to do today, you comin’?” Faith wanted to show she bore no hard feelings about the ‘dirty foreigners’ thing.

“No,” the matron pointed at the activity around the well. “I want to watch these clowns for awhile, see if they manage to drown themselves,” she grinned at Faith. “Surely you can afford a slave to do that?” Rissa gestured at Faith’s amphora.

Shrugging, Faith turned away making her way off towards the Street of Potters. Romans were so casual about death and owning people, sometimes it all felt too much for her to process; but it had also allowed her to make a good living out of her only real skill. Although she missed some aspects of her life in the future she couldn’t imagine going back there now. Here she could make an honest living from what would have got her a long sentence in jail back ‘up-time’.

So deep in thought was she that, Faith didn’t notice the street tough until he collided with her and knocked the amphora out of her hands. The big earthenware jar smashed on the cobbles with a loud crash. The tough turned to grin insolently at Faith as he pushed his way along the alley, his smile slowly faded from his face when he realised who he’d collided with.

“Oh g-gods!” he stammered, “I’m so s-sorry I-I didn’t mean to…to…” Faith stared the tough into submission, “Please don’t kill me,” he begged quietly.

Faith smiled, this was the life!

0=0=0=0

Walking into the courtyard of Vorenus’ house Faith reflected that so far, after an unpromising start, it had been quite a good day. She’d dragged the street tough back to her room (after making him buy a new amphora and fill it with water) where she’d forced him to clean up for her. At first he had complained at being forced to do women’s work, but after Faith had explained the alternatives he went to work with a will. Eventually she had kicked him out mentioning to him that a long sea voyage or a stint in the legions might be good for his health. Taking the hint she saw him run off in the general direction of the Field of Mars. Faith laughed quietly, if she believed in any of the Roman gods she’d thank them, once more she’d been saved from having to do the house work.

“He’s up.”

Turning Faith saw Niobe walk towards her; she could tell the woman was checking her out, Faith had expected this. Having put on her most conservative dress she’d made sure that there were no weapons showing.

“Pullo’s up?” Faith was more than a little surprised.

“Yes, it’ll take more than a wine jug to kill that big lug,” Niobe almost smiled, then remembered who she was talking to and went back to scowling. 

“Alright if I…?” Faith gestured to the stairs that led up to Vorenus’ apartment.

“Go on,” Niobe turned to go back to what she was doing, “Vorenus is out,” she added unnecessarily as Faith climbed the stairs.

0=0=0=0

“How’s ya head?” Faith perched at the foot of the bed where the big soldier lay.

“Feels like Vulcan’s set up his forge in there,” Pullo opened his eyes to look at Faith, “Vorenus tells me I’ve you to thank for getting me here.”

“Yeah,” Faith admitted shyly, “an’ if I’d been faster on my feet ya might not have got hit like that…sorry.”

“No…nothing to be sorry for, I’m just glad you were there to get me out,” Pullo pulled himself up the bed and sat up, a crafty smile crossed his face, “how many did I kill?”

“Most of them,” Faith grinned, “the one ya stabbed in the throat, man you were fast!”

“Trick I learnt in the legion,” Pullo looked around himself, “don’t suppose there’s any wine going begging?”

0=0=0=0

For the next week, while Pullo recovered from his injury, Faith would turn up at Vorenus’ house to keep him company. When she turned up one afternoon having been clawed by the bear she’d fought the night before for the entertainment of some rich Senator and his wife even Niobe started to soften towards her.

“It’s nothing,” Faith had explained as the woman had fussed around her, “I heal quick, by the end of the week you’ll hardly be able to tell anything happened.”

Both Pullo and Niobe looked at her disbelievingly.

“I’ll take you up on that,” Pullo said slyly, the wound being high on Faith’s thigh.

Niobe slapped Pullo’s arm playfully with the back of her hand, “All men are pigs,” she announced sadly, “and I’m married to a cold mean brute, thanks be to evil spirits,” Niobe sighed before turning to Faith, “My problems must seem trivial to you, fighting those wild beasts for a living.”

“What? Pullo here?” both women laughed at the hurt look on Pullo’s face, Faith continued before Pullo could defend himself, “It’s not so bad,” she admitted slowly, “I’d rather fight a bear than a man.”

“How so?” Pullo rested his chin on his fist.

“A man can think,” Faith pointed out.

“News to me,” Niobe observed wryly.

“No, its true,” Faith nodded her head seriously, “but you see; you poke a bear with a spear, he’ll attack the spear. Poke a man with a spear he’ll attack you. I’d rather be fighting a bear than a pack of angry Gauls like your husband and Pullo here did.” 

Faith remembered the time she had been caught by a ‘pack of angry Gauls’, if it hadn’t been for Vorenus and Pullo she might be dead now.

“What’s the worst thing you’ve fought?” Pullo asked all hint of jovial banter gone from his voice.

“Apart from Gauls?” Pullo nodded while Faith thought for a moment, “Wolves.” 

“Wolves doesn’t sound so bad,” Pullo interjected, “I’d have thought lions or tigers.”

“No,” Faith combed her fingers through her hair, “one wolf is easy, like fighting a vicious dog. Two wolves is harder but still manageable…now three or more and you’re in trouble.”

“How so?” Pullo asked again.

“Wolves are like men,” Faith pointed out.

“You can say that again,” Niobe laughed.

“They’re both pack animals; they know how to work together.” Faith shook her head, “Pack of wolves…you can’t beat them with brute strength you have to out think them.” Then by way of changing the subject, Faith turned to Niobe, “Things still bad between you and Vorenus?”

“Not one loving word out of him,” Niobe sighed sadly, “not to me or the children.”

“He’s no skilled hand with the women,” Pullo agreed, “but in all the years I’ve known him he never took another woman.”

“Then how do you know he’s no skilled hand with women?” Niobe looked at Pullo disbelievingly, Faith kept her expression neutral. 

“Pullo, my old friend,” Pullo continued as if Niobe hadn’t spoken, “he would say, I have a wife at home and Niobe is her name she’s the only woman for me.”

“Thank-you for your kind words,” Niobe smiled at Pullo, “but I know you lie you were no friend of his, he told me.”

“Why he has an ill temper,” Pullo looked away from Niobe for a moment, “he’d say anything.”

Right at that moment, as if he’d been listening outside, Vorenus walked through the curtain that separated the bedchamber from the rest of the apartment; he stood in the doorway and looked directly at Pullo and ignored the two women.

“Anthony needs every man,” he announced earnestly, “if you can walk, we rendezvous at the House of Atia.” 

He turned to leave as Niobe pushed passed him leaving Pullo and Faith alone; Pullo swung his legs off the bed.

“You’re not going with him are you?” Faith found herself feeling concerned for the big soldier’s welfare.

“I might be needed,” Pullo pulled himself to his feet and swayed a little; Faith rushed to his side and held him up, “so, I better get used to standing up, all this lying around in bed…it’s not good for you.”

“Yeah right,” Faith sounded unconvinced, people just didn’t get up and walk around and maybe get involved if a fight just a week after having brain surgery. “Look, at least let me help you, don’t want you falling over every time you take a step.”

Pullo stumbled and held on to Faith’s arm for support, he looked at her a puzzled frown on his face.

“I knew you were strong but…”

“I told you,” Faith effortlessly held the big man up, “I’m special. Let me help you go for a walk or something.”

“Ah now there’s the thing,” a crafty smile replaced Pullo’s frown, “what’s the ‘or something’? I mean if you were promising me something special I’d make more of an effort.”

“Look,” Faith explained with a smile, “let’s see how you do walking before we start making promises, huh?”

“So you _are_ making a promise?” Pullo held tightly onto Faith’s arm as they headed for the stairs down to the courtyard.

“I never said that.”

“Not in so many words,” they reached the courtyard and headed out into the alley.

“Niobe’s right,” Faith smirked. 

“What’s that?”

“All men are beasts,” Faith let his fingers linger on her arm, it had been awhile. “Which always works for me, gotta admit.”

0=0=0=0

It was dark by the time Pullo got to the House of Atia that evening. He climbed slowly up the stairs to the solarium where Vorenus stood and watched over the darkened city.

“You’re late.” he said without turning to look.

“Had some business to attend to,” Pullo stood next to Vorenus and spat over the parapet.

“You’ve been with that Fidelia girl haven’t you?” Vorenus glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, “I’d know that smug look anywhere.” 

The centurion tried to hide a smile; he coughed and covered his mouth with his hand.

“Yes,” Pullo clasped his hands behind his back, “what if I have? I was doing a public service; poor lass said she’d not got laid by a man in over three years!”

“Nothing to do with me,” Vorenus shrugged his shoulders.

“Fucks like Helen of Troy with her arse on fire,” Pullo smiled at the fond memories of the last few hours. 

Then a frown crossed his face and he felt the bruise on the side of his jaw, “Temper like Medusa on the rag, mind.” Yawning he looked at Vorenus, “I think I’ll go and lie down for a while.” 

He turned and climbed down into the main part of the villa as Vorenus continued his lonely vigil, wishing his life was as simple and uncomplicated as Pullo’s.

0=0=0=0


	7. Chapter 7

7: 

**Near the Senate.**

Mark Anthony adjusted the fall of his toga and glanced around at his legionaries who were mustering in the street behind him. After the ‘scuffles in the senate’ the day before Mark Anthony needed to get to the senate house so he could exercise his right of ‘Tribune’s Veto’ and prevent his friend and sponsor, Gaius Julius Caesar, from being proclaimed an enemy of Rome. The fighting which had broken out between the senators prevented him from vetoing the motion and the session ended in a near riot with several senators being stabbed and wounded. The streets were rife with rumours that Pompey, Caesar’s old rival, had organised a demonstration of popular support in front of the senate to prevent Mark Anthony from entering the building, thus allowing Pompey’s party to declare Caesar a war criminal. 

Roman law stated that no soldier could set foot in Rome while under arms; this was why Mark Anthony’s legionaries were dressed in civilian clothes or in the grey soldier’s tunics that they would normally wear under their armour. Added to this no weapons could be carried, at least not openly, so his men were forced to conceal their weapons under cloaks or tunics. There was, however, a small hand cart loaded with swords and shields for use if it came to a fight. Anthony was relying on the discipline and fighting ability of his men to overawe the opposition rather than their numbers and get him through to the senate building. With luck nothing would go wrong and he’d march to the forum to veto the motion and some sort of backroom deal could be made between the disaffected parties.

Signalling that it was almost time to start off Mark Anthony watched as Centurion Lucius Vorenus marshalled the men into ordered ranks and how he placed that big soldier, Titus Pullo, within easy reach of himself. It was only then that Mark Anthony noticed a dark haired beauty not actually part of the group, but not completely separate from it either.

“Centurion!” Mark Anthony, watched the girl as Vorenus marched quickly over to join him.

“Yes Sir?”

“Vorenus,” Anthony pointed to where the woman stood hovering on the edge of the group of soldiers, “who’s the girl?” 

Vorenus turned to look where Anthony had pointed.

“Ah,” Vorenus ran his hand through his short hair in agitation, “that would be Legionary Pullo’s woman sir.”

“Good gods, centurion,” Anthony sighed heavily, “this isn’t a picnic…get rid of her.”

“Erm, sir,” Vorenus looked around as if he was frightened someone would overhear, “it’s not my place to disagree but you might wish to reconsider.” 

Mark Anthony gave Vorenus an exasperated look.

“She calls herself Fidelia Venetrix…”

“Venetrix?” Mark Anthony interrupted, “Hunter?”

“Gladiatrix sir,” added Vorenus, “quite famous in certain circles, I’ve seen her fight.”

Mark Anthony looked over to where Faith stood on the edge of the crowd of soldiers; the frown on his face told Vorenus that his commander didn’t believe a word of what he was saying. Suddenly something jogged Anthony’s memory; he snapped his fingers and smiled.

“That’s the little vixen you and Pullo found in Gaul isn’t it?” he laughed at the memory.

“Yes sir,” Vorenus replied non-committally. 

“Oh,” Mark Anthony gave the problem a moment’s thought, “let her tag along if she wants,” he laughed, “maybe her presence will distract the mob,” Anthony looked around, they were as ready as they’d ever be, “come on, lets get this over with.”

0=0=0=0

Faith noticed the first men with clubs as Mark Anthony’s party were still walking along the road to the senate. The street opened out into the square before the senate building and she saw that the area was packed with raggedly dressed men all clutching staves or clubs. Still Mark Anthony’s soldiers marched on and she wondered what she was doing there? Was it out of some misguided sense of loyalty to a guy that she had spent a couple of hours screwing the night before? No, that would be very unlike her, she shook her head as she walked on through the crowd who were now shouting insults and waving their weapons. No it must be because some of the few people she counted as friends were putting themselves in harm’s way, Faith sighed, she must be getting soft in her old age.

“Make a lane there!” cried a man with a shaven head and a ragged cloak as he tried to push men out of the way, “Come on, you bastards!”

Glancing over at Pullo, Faith saw him staring off into the crowd; she followed his gaze to see what he was looking at. With a start she recognised the man in the crowd; he was one of the men from the wine shop who’d cheated Pullo out of his money. She’d not forget that scarred face in a hurry, Pullo had killed all of Scar Face’s friends before succumbing to the blow on the head that had so nearly killed him. Now it looked as if Scar Face was out for revenge.

Shouting a warning, Faith saw Scar Face leap at Pullo a knife held in his hand. Her call was unnecessary as Pullo met the attack with his own knife almost slicing off Scar Face’s head with a single blow. Pullo’s attacker fell to the ground his blood staining the cobbles red as it oozed from the great gash in his neck. For a moment all was silent in the square as men looked on wondering what was supposed to happen next.

“Rally to me!” Mark Anthony called calmly as he took a sword from a man behind him, “Rally to me!” he called again to the accompaniment of swords and knives being drawn from scabbards.

Abruptly the near silence of the square was broken by a great mindless roar as the mob fell upon Mark Anthony and his legionaries. Finding herself suddenly set upon from all sides, Faith pulled her own knife and started to thin out the attackers around her. Slicing open one assailant’s belly with a single slash, she pushed the dying man into a group of three others who were trying to grab her and pull her to the ground. As the men stumbled and tried to disentangle themselves from the bloody corpse, Faith spun on her left foot and kicking the legs out from another mob member with her right; she heard the man’s knee shatter under her foot just before he fell screaming to the ground.

Disembowelling yet another attacker Faith made some room for herself. Looking around she saw Mark Anthony and his men retreating in good order cutting down any of the mob that got too close to their line. Unfortunately, things didn’t look so good for Vorenus and Pullo who had been caught slightly ahead of the main body of legionaries. Pullo fought using two knives blocking the club blows aimed at him with one while stabbing any man foolish enough to get too close to him with the other. Vorenus fought stoically using a short sword, cutting down opponents in the approved Roman military manner. Faith pushed several of the mob out of her way as she made her way over to join Pullo.

“Good fun eh?” Pullo laughed as Faith joined him and they started to cut their way towards the main body of Mark Anthony’s force, “Get over here!” Pullo called to Vorenus.

A mere moment later a thug grappled with Vorenus and stabbed him in the side, the Centurion stumbled but caught himself and plunged his own sword deep into the thug’s belly before collapsing onto one knee. In an instant Pullo and Faith were cutting their way to Vorenus’ side.

“Get him out of here!” Faith snatched up Vorenus’ sword from where it had fallen.

Pullo hesitated for a fraction of a second before heaving Vorenus to his feet and starting to drag him towards the shield wall that had now been formed by the other legionaries. Faith stood her ground, knife in one hand and Vorenus’ sword in the other; she smiled at the mob in front of her. One or two mob members hesitated as they saw the look on her face, but they were pushed forward by those behind. Faith started to ply her grisly trade cutting down any that came in reach of her flashing blades. It didn’t take long for the mob to realise that attacking the dark haired girl was as futile as it was fatal.

Finding herself the centre of a circle populated only by herself and more than a dozen dead bodies Faith took a moment to glance over her shoulder. Seeing that Pullo had now dragged Vorenus into the shelter of the legionary’s shields. They retreated slowly up the street that they had so recently used to arrive in the square. Faith reasoned that her duty was done and it was time for her to leave the area. Looking around she could only see the press of the mob which was starting to close in on her again.

Casually stabbing a man in the belly she kicked his legs out from under him and watched where he fell. Taking a step forward while keeping the crowd back with wild slashes of her sword, she stepped onto her latest victim’s body and using him as a vantage point, looked for an escape route. Over the heads of the struggling mob she caught sight of a narrow alleyway about half a dozen paces from her present position.

As she looked a man grabbed her from behind, he fumbled with the top of her dress trying to pull it off. Faith reversed the sword in her hand and stabbed backwards. The thug coughed blood over Faith’s back as the sword slipped easily between his ribs and punctured his lung. Breaking the dying man’s hold she turned and took his head off with one easy sword cut and watched in satisfaction as his headless body fell at her feet.

Once again the crowd backed away from this female Mars allowing her to push past the few remaining stunned street thugs. Cutting down two more men who’d not been quick enough on their feet to get out of her way; Faith headed off down the narrow alleyway leaving the blooded mob behind her.

0=0=0=0

Bursting into her room Faith sat down heavily on one of the benches by the table, she looked down at herself and laughed quietly. No wonder people had got out of her way as she’d run from the fight. Who wouldn’t get out of the way of a woman in a blood splattered dress clutching a blood stained sword and knife? Throwing down her weapons onto the table she pulled off her grubby dress and blood spattered britches, sitting for a moment dressed only in her leather panties, she sighed and tried to work out if anything she’d done was going to turn ‘round and bite her on the arse.

Not taking very much notice of politics, Faith really didn’t know where she stood, she was aware of a long running squabble between Caesar and the Senate, but it didn’t really affect her in her day to day life. Running her blood stained finger through her hair she found that the back of her head was a tangled mess of blood caked hair.

“Fuck! Damn and crap!” she muttered angrily and wished for a hot shower, soap and shampoo.

Looking over at her water amphora she realised she’d need more water than it held to get herself clean again. Slipping on her soiled dress she walked out onto the stairs and looked down into the street. Yelling to a boy to go and bring her a couple of buckets of water from the well in the Street of Potters, she threw him a bronze coin and watched him run off down the street. Tiredly she walked back into her room, stripped off again and started to remove the first layers of blood and filth from her hair and body.

0=0=0=0

After having cleaned herself up as best as she could, the boy returned with the water so Faith could wash properly. He showed a marked reluctance to leave and get more when she ordered him out of her room; he seemed far more interested in watching her complete her ablutions. It was only after she had commented on the job opportunities for eunuchs that the boy left in a hurry to finish his task.

Having dressed in her third best dress, Faith eyed the pile of dirty clothing in the corner of her room with distaste. It was no good, she would have to take it all to the washer woman; there was no putting it off any longer, besides she was running out of clean clothes.

Locking the door behind her Faith picked up her bundle of laundry, she could drop it off on her way to Marius’ ‘office’; she needed to know what was going on in the city after the fight this morning. If anyone would know Marius would, and she still needed to decide what she wanted to do with her new found wealth. Villa’s came with their own heated baths and as she made a habit of wading through blood at regular intervals a bath would come in handy, better than trying to clean up in a bucket any day.

0=0=0=0

It was with these thoughts of the untold luxury of her own bath going through her head that Faith came upon the ordered chaos of Marius’ office. The slave dealer’s personal slaves were packing valuables into chests and loading them onto a couple of small carts.

“What’s going on?” Faith asked a little louder than she would have normally, “Not running out on me are ya?” 

As if of its own free will Faith’s hand went for the hilt of the knife she carried hidden in the folds of her dress.

“Fidelia!” Marius turned to confront her, a look of guilt passed fleetingly across his face, only to be replaced by the smile that he kept just for her, “Fidelia my love.” 

He advanced on Faith arms held wide in greeting; Faith’s look of suspicion stopped him dead in his tracks. 

“Fidelia, Fidelia my love, my honey, how could you think that I would desert you and take your money with me without…”

“So where’s my money?” Faith asked coldly.

“In a chest on the first cart,” Marius took a step back as he caught the glint of metal as Faith started to pull the knife from its scabbard, “See? See how I value your property?” Marius rallied and held out his hands to Faith in supplication. “My first thought was to protect your interests, my sweet…I’m hurt that you would think that I would steal from you, you of all people.” Marius put on his best expression of injured innocence, the look on his face almost made Faith smile.

“Where are you going, douche bag?” Faith pushed her knife back into its scabbard and tried to look fierce while trying not to laugh out loud at Marius’ pained expression.

“I was going to take a few days in my villa on the coast until this whole messy business blows over.” Marius looked disgusted that anything as tawdry as politics and possibly a civil war would interfere with business. “You should come with me,” a crafty gleam came to his eye as he calculated his chances of getting Faith into bed without the formality of a marriage; seeing the hard look on her face he shook his head and dismissed the idea with a heartbroken sigh.

“It’ll be dangerous here in Rome,” he continued in a more conversational tone, “and while I know that you are no stranger to danger, it…it would break my heart if something were to happen to you and I had not at least tried to persuade you to come away with me.”

Now Faith did smile at the trader’s long face and for a moment she almost forgot that he’d probably been trying to run off with her money…but only for a moment.

“I’ll be fine,” Faith looked up into Marius big foolish, open face and wondered if maybe she shouldn’t just…no! Faith stamped down hard on any thoughts of marrying the slave dealer, “Just leave me a bag of money and remember who owns what,” striking like a snake Faith grabbed hold of Marius’ tunic and pulled him up close, “you know what’ll happen if ya forget?”

“Of course-of course,” Marius tried to make light of the situation while trying to twist out of Faith’s grip.

Pulling him even closer Faith kissed him hard on the lips before pushing him away again, she laughed and weighed the purse that she had just taken from Marius’ belt in her hand.

“This’ll do,” she threw the purse up into the air and caught it easily, “now be a good boy and don’t forget to come back with the rest.”

“Of course, my love.” Marius appeared a little stunned as he stood foolishly with his fingers at his lips watching Faith walk off across the market square.

0=0=0=0

The night passed quietly and the next morning Faith found herself walking through one of the local markets buying supplies. Noticing how the streets seemed emptier than they usually were she saw how people scurried from stall to stall before heading for their homes. No one was stopping to talk or argue with their neighbours as they would on a normal day. Collecting her few purchases she started to head back to her apartment when she heard someone call her name.

Turning to see Timon the Horse Jew push his way through the sparse crowd towards her, Faith waited for the man to catch up, she’d done some lucrative business with him on several occasions. The man called himself a horse dealer and although he knew good horse flesh when he saw it and could lay his hands on more than adequate horse flesh when needs be, all the work Faith’d ever done for him had little to do with horses. 

“Fidelia,” he called quietly as he walked up to her.

“Timon,” Faith returned the man’s greeting, “what are you doing in this part of town, huh?” she sniffed at Timon, “Are you wearing perfume?” Timon frowned. “It stinks, dude, not a turn on.” Faith added as the two business friends turned to continue walking along the street.

“You’re the second woman to tell me that today,” Timon rubbed at his neck as if trying to remove the perfume, “this stuff wasn’t cheap you know?”

“Then they ripped ya off,” Faith waved her hand in front of her nose before taking an apple from her shopping bag and biting into it, “this obviously ain’t a social call…ya got a job for me?”

“That’s one of the things I like about you, Fidelia,” Timon stepped around a beggar who was sitting to one side of the narrow street, “straight down to business.”

“Hey, a girl does what she can,” Faith flipped the beggar a small coin, Timon noticed the action and followed the coin with his eye.

“You come into money?”

“Just a piece of good luck, gotta keep the gods happy,” Faith took another bite of her apple, “so, what’s the job?”

“The lady Atia is holding a bash for her friends and hangers on tomorrow evening.”

“That’s nice for her,” Faith replied dismissively, finishing her apple she threw the core at a stray dog, “what’s it to do with me? I don’t cook and I don’t do those erotic dance things…does she want me to kill something?” 

The dog yelped as the apple core hit its head. Timon, on the other, hand remained silent for a moment as visions of Faith doing ‘erotic dances’ filled his mind.

“Timon?” Faith nudged the man in the ribs with her elbow.

“Hmm? Sorry, what?” Timon gathered his thoughts and got back to business, “no… unfortunately…she wants more guards.”

Faith raised her eyebrow waiting for an explanation.

“Yeah she’s worried about the Pompeyan Mob causing trouble ‘cause she’s of the Caesarean faction, so…” Timon waited for an answer.

“Don’t do guard work,” Faith pointed out, “got my reputation to think of.”

“It’s your reputation that I want,” Timon explained eagerly and fearing that Faith would turn him down flat, “once the news gets about that you’re there…that’s worth, what? Two or three ordinary guards.”

“Only two or three?” Faith sounded indignant.

“Alright,” Timon conceded, “four or five.”

“That’s better,” grinning at the look of pleading on Timon’s face Faith nodded her head, “ya lucky day, pal, I’ll do it and I get at least four guards pay for the gig.”

“WHAT!” Timon stopped stock still in the street causing several people to almost collide with him.

“I bet ya thought,” Faith turned to poke the horse dealer in the chest with her finger, Timon winced at each ‘poke’, “ya could get away with paying me twice the normal rate and pocket the difference.”

Timon started to bluster a denial but gave up when he saw the look on Faith’s face, he shrugged resignedly.

“I suppose I was,” he admitted with a guilty grin. “anyway I thought you weren’t hard up for cash…a bit of luck you said.”

“Like I said,” Faith continued to walk on down the street, she looked over her shoulder coyly adding, “a girl does what she can.”

0=0=0=0


	8. Chapter 8

8: 

**Atia’s Dinner Party.**

One of the reasons that Faith didn’t ‘do’ guard jobs was that they were so mind numbingly boring. Having to stand silently in the shadows as the lady of the house and her guests lay on their couches and made what passed for polite conversation in Roman society was not Faith’s idea of fun. Tonight there was the Lady Atia herself; a rich woman in her thirties who belonged to an important family which was related to the famous Caesar himself. Timon had told Faith that Atia had been screwing Mark Anthony and himself (but never at the same time) for some months now.

Then there was the newly widowed Octavia, Atia’s daughter. Atia’d had Timon murder Octavia’s husband after she'd forced the couple to divorce because she wanted Octavia to marry Pompey. This plan had failed and the young couple had been trying to get back together, apparently the girl actually loved her husband, Faith sniffed in derision at the very thought. The last member of the Julii family was Octavian, a youth of about fifteen, the same youth that Faith had helped rescue in Gaul; Faith had smiled sympathetically at kid because he obviously found dinner parties as boring as she did. He tried to separate himself from the rest of the group, but Atia, like all annoying mothers from the dawn of time, kept trying to draw him into the conversation.

There were five other guests in the room, of which three were unimportant, or so Faith had been told, and she’d immediately forgotten their names when Timon had pointed them out to her. The remaining two guests were important; Marcus Junius Brutus and his mother Servilia of the Junii, Faith had almost laughed out loud when she had found out who the woman was. F’Christ’s sake, she’d sniggered quietly behind her hand, he’s still going out with his mother? Guy must be a complete loser; Faith’s grasp on the social and political niceties of Roman society were still tenuous to say the least.

0=0=0=0

When she’d arrived at Atia’s house, Faith had checked out the household slaves and found nothing suspicious; none of them were vampires or demons. Then she’d contrived to be near each of the guests as they’d arrived and again she had found nothing untoward, with any luck the party wouldn’t be crashed by anything ‘other-worldly’. Everything was going smoothly until the last guest arrived.

The ‘man’ was supposed to be some minor senator whose vote might come in useful at some point in the future. As soon as Faith laid eyes on him she knew there was something wrong with him, for a start there was the buzzing tingling sensation she felt at the back of her head whenever she looked at him. Also, if you watched carefully when he walked there seemed to be something odd about his legs, they just didn’t look right. He had to be a demon of some sort and she’d no doubt have to kill him. The dinner party dragged on with Atia and her guests swapping studied insults, Faith, however, missed most of the fun as she had eyes only for the senator.

“You’re not going to screw him are you?” Faith felt Timon’s breath on her ear; he’d washed off the perfume from earlier that day so she’d not smelt him come up behind her.

“What?” snapping out of her reverie, Faith turned slightly to look at Timon.

“You’ve been staring at him all evening,” Timon observed, “not thinking about a change of profession are you?”

“Screw you,” Faith whispered shrugging her shoulders trying to cast off the feeling of malice that seemed to be emanating from the senator; it occurred to Faith that it might be what was causing all the catty remarks that were flying around the table, but from what she’d been told about Atia, probably not.

Maybe the senator was some kind of ‘bad feelings’ or ‘dinner party wrecking’ demon. As has been mentioned Faith’s contact with Rome’s polite society had, until this point, been limited, so she wasn’t too sure what was supposed to happen at these sorts of parties.

“If you’re not planning on being the senator’s new mistress...” Timon stood next to Faith and watched the senator for a moment or two, he frowned, “…you don’t think he’s going to steal the silver do you?” 

“Nah,” Faith shook her head, “but there’s something of the weird about him…keep an eye on him for me, I’m going out to pee.”

Turning her back on Timon, Faith headed for the courtyard.

0=0=0=0

Returning from outside Faith found that the senator had gone; she walked quickly and silently up behind Timon.

“Where is he?” She whispered urgently into his ear.

“He went out the back to use the piss-pot.”

“Which way?”

Timon pointed to a dark doorway, Faith walked quietly around the edge of the room and slipped through the door.

“Fucking class system!” Faith muttered angrily to herself, “I have to pee in the courtyard, evil senator guy gets to pee indoors.”

It only took a few moments for her eyes to get accustomed to the darkness, the soft light of the oil lamps didn’t dazzle like electric lights did…or would. Finding herself in a room with a couch, a couple chairs and a lot of potted plants, Faith couldn’t spot any evil senators. Pulling her sword from its scabbard, she advanced into the darkness and found another doorway. Standing quietly she heard nothing other than the muffled conversation coming from the dinner party. However, the buzzing, tingly-ness that warned of the demon senator started to tickle the base of her skull again.

Standing as still as a statue, Faith strained all her senses trying to gauge the demon’s where abouts. Steadying her breathing and closing her eyes, Faith let the feelings of ill-ease rolling off the demon wash over her. Turning slowly in the centre of the room she tried to judge from which direction the feeling were strongest. Stopping, Faith opened her eyes again and looked up to find a doorway she’d missed earlier. The demon-vibe was coming from the darkened door and it was getting stronger by the second.

Taking a firm grip on her sword, Faith plunged into the darkness of the doorway to find herself in a short corridor. Running her hand along the wall as she walked she soon found the door at the far end. Listening at the portal for a moment, she heard animalistic grunts and cries of pain coming from the other side. Pushing the door open carefully, Faith found herself looking into a large bedroom lit by half a dozen oil lamps placed on ledges and shelves around the room. On the floor lay the senator’s toga, while on the bed knelt a large black, four armed demon who was energetically sodomising one of Atia’s more attractive slave girls. The unfortunate girl moaned weakly as the demon thrust his enormous penis into her rear. The bed was stained with blood and less wholesome fluids that appeared to have come from the demon.

“Fuck me!” Faith gasped in surprise as she burst fully into the room.

The demon looked up from his present victim his penis slipping from the ill-fated girl’s trembling body; he turned to confront Faith pointing his huge member at her threateningly.

“If you insist!” the demon growled before springing at Faith.

Taken by surprise Faith only had time enough to duck under the demon’s attack and take a wild swipe at his legs with her sword. Finding herself on the floor she looked up to see the demon struggling to free himself from a wall hanging that he’d managed to pull down on top of himself. Scrambling on hands and knees across the floor, Faith positioned herself on the opposite side of the bed from the demon.

Standing up she turned to confront the monster readying her sword, Faith prepared to chop this foul creature into tiny, bloody pieces. With a roar the demon sprang to its feet and turned to face her, snarling it took a pace towards her as two of its hands came down to clutch its penis, this still left it with two hands and two legs with which to fight Faith. It started to jerk itself off as it moved in, trapping Faith against the wall.

“Fuck m…” Faith thought better of finishing her exclamation, “That’s wicked disgusting,” she gasped, “what are you some sort of pervert de…!”

A great spurt of demon semen shot across the room to hit her squarely in the face cutting off her words, roaring in triumph the demon charged at Faith sending the bed and the terrified slave girl flying through the air as he knocked them out of the way in his hurry to get at Faith.

Spluttering and coughing, Faith tried to wipe the vile, malodorous, fluid from her eyes and spit the foul stuff from her mouth; she would definitely _not_ be swallowing tonight! The monster crashed into her and the two slammed against the wall as the demon started to rub himself against Faith’s belly while he clawed at her dress ripping it from her body and exposing her breasts to his other set of hands. A detached part of Faith’s mind reminded her of her days in junior high and one or two of the teen assholes she’d dated back then.

Pushing at the monster with one hand, Faith made enough room for herself to bring her sword up and stab the demon in one of its arms. The demon screamed and jumped away from her as if he had been burnt. Crouching in the middle of the room the beast studied the long cut on his lower left arm as smoke or steam rose from the wound. Given a breather Faith wiped the remaining semen from her face with the corner of a wall hanging; she then caught sight of her ruined dress.

“BASTARD!” she screamed at the demon who took a step back from her in shock at the force of her reaction. “This was my third best dress!” advancing on the demon she punctuated her words with jerks of her sword, “Now its ruined!” 

With strength born of anger Faith renewed her attack on the demon; slayer and demon chased each other around the room destroying the remaining furniture and starting a number of small fires as they knocked over lamps. Sometimes the demon had the upper hand other times Faith was on top. Eventually Faith had beaten the demon to the ground and was holding three of its four arms with her legs as she sat astride his chest. Just as she raised her sword, dagger-like to plunge it into the demon's throat, she froze in shock as the demon’s long sinuous tongue snaked its way under the remains of her dress heading for her crotch. The demon’s penis started to poke her in the back just as the door burst open.

“What in the name of Hades is going on in here?” Atia stood in the doorway, she didn’t look best pleased.

“Erm, demon, domina.” Faith replied haltingly, she held her sword ready to thrust into the demon’s throat while she tried to wriggle away from the monster’s tongue without letting any of its arms free.

“Oh.” Atia replied thoughtfully, she looked closely at the demon, “is that you, senator…er…whatever your name is?”

“Yes, my lady, …um…sorry about this,” the demon shrugged with his two right hand shoulders, “couldn’t be helped.”

Faith sighed with relief as the demon withdrew his tongue to speak. 

Atia glared at Faith. “I suppose you’re going to kill him?”

“Umm, yes, domina; that was kinda the general idea,” Faith felt strangely cowed by Atia’s presence.

“Well get on with it, you silly girl,” the Lady Atia started to close the door as she left the room, “I’m trying to hold a dinner party and all this banging and crashing is most off putting.” Atia left the room and closed the door behind her.

0=0=0=0

Walking back to her guests Atia smiled reassuringly.

“Everything is under control,” Atia took a goblet of wine from a slave; “It seems that Senator what’s-his-name’ was some kind of monster.” There were gasps of alarm from a couple of the guests, “Don’t worry,” Atia reassured, “that gladiatrix girl that Timon hired is dealing with it, now lets get on with the party…”

0=0=0=0

“Alright, Venetrix, you win.” sighed the demon as he stopped struggling, “If I’d known you were going to be here tonight I’d not have bothered.”

“You wanna moment?” Faith readjusted her grip on the sword, “Any gods you need to talk to?”

“Nah.” the demon shook his head, “umm…I don’t suppose you’d be willing,” Faith looked down at the demon a puzzled frown on her face, “You know…one last fuck before I go?” The demon looked up at her hopefully.

“Dude,” Faith snorted in revulsion, “don’t you ever give up?” 

Not waiting for a reply she thrust her sword into the demon's throat, demon blood sprayed over her breasts while demon semen hit her with a wet splat between the shoulder blades. Dripping blood and semen Faith climbed off the creature and stood up just as the door burst open to admit several male slaves who quickly put out the fires around the room. While they were working an older female slave walked over to Faith and touched her gingerly on the arm.

“Domina Atia wishes you to come with me,” she whispered in Faith’s ear.

Following the woman, who Faith recognised as Atia’s personal slave, she was led out into the courtyard were two younger female slaves waited. The slave girls produced sponges and warm water and after cutting off the remains of her dress and relieving her of her sword, cleaned the goo from Faith’s body and hair. When Atia’s slave was satisfied that all the demon gunk had been removed the older woman had the slave girls dry her off before presenting Faith with a new dress.

“The domina rewards those who have been of service to her,” announced the slave self importantly, “you’ll find a purse with your weapon…now get dressed and get on with your work.”

Faith put on her new dress, it was of fine linen and very well made, however under the light of the torches in the courtyard she couldn’t tell if it was yellow or orange. Not really her colours, but she wasn’t going to complain, good clothes were expensive and difficult to come by. Picking up her sword and scabbard, which she noticed someone had cleaned, she picked up the purse and felt the weight of the coins inside. Nodding her head in satisfaction she made her way back to the dinner party.

0=0=0=0

It must have been about the third or fourth hour of the night when the mob formed outside Atia’s house. They yelled insults at the people inside and even threw a flaming torch over the roof to land hissing in the pool in the centre of the atrium. Looking up to scan the rooftops, Faith half expected to see intruders climbing over the tiles. Sighing with relief when she saw nothing; she thought how it would be a pity to get blood all over her new dress.

“What’s going on out there?” demanded Atia angrily as she got up from her couch and strode towards the big front door.

“No doubt some of Pompey’s scum come to murder us all,” Brutus called dryly and receiving a withering look from his mother.

By now Atia had reached the door and pulled open the small hatch set in the middle of the door so she could see who was outside. Showing no fear she stared out at the mob in the street. Faith moved through the shadows and positioned herself so she could be at Atia’s side if anything bad happened. A new dress and a purse of coins was enough to buy her loyalty for tonight at least. Faith smiled in the darkness as she realised she was getting more and more Roman by the day.

“Well, here’s a mercy,” announced Atia as she looked out at the torch wielding mob, “instead of living out our lives in shame and disgrace because we supported Uncle Gaius. We are to be raped and beaten and torn limb from limb by a raving mob.”

Atia turned to look at her guests.

“These brutes will not let you pass, I think,” she announced rather matter-of-factly, “you may all stay the night if you wish.”

“That is very kind of you.” Servilia replied for the guests without a trace of sarcasm in her voice, Faith had picked up on the fact that the two women hated each other with a passion.

Slowly the guests drifted back to the atrium and lay down on their couches while Faith walked over to a deep shadow where she could watch the entire area, she leant against the wall and closed her eyes.

0=0=0=0

Her eyes snapped open and her sword came up in a blur to rest against Timon’s throat.

“How do you do that?” the man asked trying not to swallow too hard.

“Practice.” Faith became fully alert and hearing the thud of a ram against the front door she sighed and looked at Timon.

“Yeah,” he answered her unspoken question, “the mob have drunk enough wine so they’re brave enough to break in and kill us all.” Timon pulled his own sword and led Faith towards the door, “Time to earn our pay.”

“Hey!” Faith smiled, “What do you think I was doing earlier?”

“Sorry I meant nothing by it,” Timon apologised quickly.

“Don’t sweat it.” Faith knew it would go badly with the gods, which she still didn’t really believe in, if she were to die with anger in her heart against a comrade.

The ram banged steadily against the door as Faith and the rest of the guards waited for the doors to burst open and the mob to pour in. Glancing around she noticed that Atia had picked up a sword from somewhere as had Octavian and Brutus. Listening with half an ear Faith suddenly realised that Atia and her daughter were arguing over who should kill whom if the mob were to get in and attempt to rape the women of the house. Octavia didn’t seem to want her mother to kill her; she'd much preferred that the male slave who filled the role of butler should be the one to do it. Faith got so interested in the argument that she totally failed to notice when the banging stopped.

“LISTEN!” cried Octavian, “QUIET!”

Shocked by the outburst from her son Atia shut up in mid sentence and listened. There was only silence as everyone exchanged hopeful looks, maybe they weren’t going to be ‘raped and beaten and torn limb from limb’ after all. Faith and Timon moved quickly towards the gates, Timon opened the hatch and looked out.

“Well?” Faith asked.

“Looks like they’ve gone.” Timon signalled for two of his men to remove the supports that’d been reinforcing the door.

As the doors were carefully opened, Timon glanced at Faith, she nodded in answer to his unasked question, and the two warriors burst out into the street to find it deserted. Empty of the mob; the street was littered with discarded wine skins and a dying bonfire smouldering in the pre-dawn light.

“Looks like they’ve gone,” Timon observed.

“Wonder why?” Faith added as they both turned to go back into the house.

0=0=0=0

Atia sent Faith with Brutus and his mother as an escort back to Servilia’s home. They met no bloodthirsty mobs on the way; in fact the streets were unnaturally quiet. It made Faith’s back itch as if she was about to be stabbed…or it could have been some of the demon’s semen that the slave girls had failed to remove.

Arriving at Servilia’s home, Faith turned to retrace her steps to Atia’s house, no way was she going to let Timon off the hook without paying her. But she was told to go to the kitchen where she was given a cup of wine and some bread and cheese. Not realising how hungry she actually was she tore at the bread with her teeth.

“What’s your name, woman?” Faith turned to see Brutus leaning against the doorway to the kitchen.

“Faith.” 

She knew that Brutus would actually hear ‘Fidelia’; it was one of those odd things that allowed her to function in the Roman world without having to go through the tedious business of learning Latin. If she concentrated hard enough Faith knew her words would come out in English, but that was getting harder and harder for her to do as time passed.

“Atia tells me you killed some kind of evil monster,” Brutus walked over and stood in front of her, “is that so?”

“Yep,” Faith nodded, gods, not another pervert who got turned on by blood and gore, Faith looked up into Brutus’ face a world weary smile on her face, “Ya wanna fuck me, right?’

Brutus, taken aback by Faith’s boldness, mumbled something then nodded his head. Faith let out a sigh of relief.

“Great,” Faith looked around the kitchen, “killing that demon’s made me horny as hell…now where do ya suppose they keep the vinegar?”

0=0=0=0

Walking away from Servilia’s house later that morning, Faith smiled a satisfied smile. Since Niobe had explained about Roman forms of contraception she could ‘get it on’ with anyone she wanted to. Brutus might be a bit of a ‘mommy’s boy’ on the surface but he was an animal in the sack, she felt the second purse that hung from her belt; and he knew how to show his appreciation for a job well done. Yawning, Faith decided to go home and sleep. Knowing where Timon lived she could find him easily enough so she could collect her pay for the night’s work later.

0=0=0=0


	9. Chapter 9

9.

**Sauropithecus.**

Over the next few days, Faith found out what had happened while she had been helping defend Atia’s house from the mob. After the riot in front of the senate house Mark Anthony had ridden north to take refuge in Caesar’s camp. At the same time the senate and Pompey’s supporters had flown into a panic and over the next few days had fled the city. As the senators and nobles headed south away from Rome, Caesar and the Thirteen Legion crossed the River Rubicon and advanced on Rome scattering the weak Pompeian forces before them. After a rapid advance that seemed to leave his opponents stunned and confused, Caesar marched into Rome unopposed and took control of the city.

While all these momentous events were occurring Faith had basically been unemployed. No one was holding dinner parties (not even Atia) where she would supply the after dinner entertainment; plus Marius was still out of the city so there was no one to get her work at the few private arenas. Of course she had sufficient money to see her through until Marius returned as long as the present emergency didn’t last too long and Marius did in fact return. Deciding that as soon as she got down to the purse that she’d hidden under the floorboards in her room, she’d leave Rome and hunt Marius down and retrieve her money. Faith was starting to get used to the idea of being rich for once in her life, and like most poor people who attained wealth, either through luck or hard work, she wasn’t eager to go without again.

As the days past Faith split her time between keeping an eye on Niobe and her children and wandering the streets of Rome trying to pick up any up-to-date news. In the evening she patrolled the dark and strangely quiet streets and alleys of the city hunting down the few demons and vampires that still haunted the city.

After about two weeks, Vorenus suddenly returned to his home having released himself from the Legion, Faith decided to leave the couple to themselves. Having grown to like Niobe and the children she still thought that Vorenus was a bit of a blow hard; but even he wasn't really that bad. Of Pullo there was no sign so Faith didn’t even have anyone to go drinking with and she hated to drink alone.

0=0=0=0

It was just over three weeks after the riot at the senate and Rome was more or less back to normal, Faith could tell everything was alright because Marius had reappeared.

“Fidelia! My flower, my honey!” A great and Faith thought, genuine, smile split Marius’ normally gloomy face as he advanced on her with his arms outstretched.

Faith allowed herself to be hugged and kissed but pushed the slave dealer away when his hands started to roam down to her butt. In an instant Marius looked glum again and Faith almost felt sorry for him, she walked over to Marius’s desk pulling the unhappy dealer behind her.

Faith turned to confront Marius a stern look on her face, “Where in Hades were you?” she demanded crossly, “It’s been safe here for days.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Marius sighed and slumped onto his stool, “I’m sorry, I’m not as brave as you my sweet, beautiful and dangerous, Fidelia. But, I am a humble merchant who has learnt from bitter experience that political upheaval is bad for business.

“Yeah okay,” Faith admitted, he had a point and to her surprise she found she couldn’t stay angry at the guy for long…maybe she really was getting soft in her old age, “Talking of business, where’s my dough?”

“It’s safe!” Marius stepped away from Faith just in case she took it into her head to reinforce her question with a slap…or a knife. “It’s locked away in my strong boxes with my own valuables.” He gestured to where a couple of his personal slaves were unloading one of his carts.

He watched Faith closely ready to react to any move she might make, much to his relief she looked satisfied, wistfully Marius wished he could ‘satisfy’ her in other ways. Until that happy day arrived there was still business.

“Here my love,” Marius laid his hand carefully on Faith’s shoulder and started to steer her between the empty slave pens, “I have something to show you.”

“Yeah that’s what all the guys say,” Faith let herself be guided passed the cages, “just don’t expect me to be impressed, and don’t try to offer me candy either.”

Marius shook his head in puzzlement, some times this barbarian girl said the strangest things. They walked until they came to a dim cool corner out of sight of casual passers by. On a sturdy cart sat a strong iron cage and inside crouched a vaguely human shaped creature, Faith could feel the evil roll off the creature in waves as she got closer. Glancing at Marius to gauge his reaction she saw that the dealer was hanging back unwilling to go too close to the dark shape, but unwilling to let Faith go too close by herself.

“Be careful,” he whispered, “it’s very fast. It grabbed one of the handlers through the bars and killed him before anyone could react.”

“Doesn’t look too dangerous to me,” Faith peered through the bars at the strange beast within.

“We found that by keeping it cool,” Marius explained, “it doesn’t move as quickly.”

Walking around the cart Faith studied the creature intently. 

“What is it, some sort of wild man?”

“No,” Marius whispered as if he was afraid to make too much noise around the creature, “Look at the tiny scales, and those talons!” he laughed nervously. “There may be a race somewhere with blue skin, but this thing’s no more a man than a mandrill is. I’m told that the Numidians that caught it called it a ‘lizard-man’ in their tongue, a Sauropithecus.” 

Faith had to agree, the thing seemed far less human than any large ape, which it slightly resembled. It was probably those hairless limbs that had made her think it was some sort of man; that and the malign intelligence in its stare as it looked at her through the bars of the cage. Faith stepped away and scratched the back of her head; in her twenty or so years of life she’d never seen a creature, either natural or supernatural, quite like it.

Like an ape it appeared to walk erect in a forward crouch, and its long forelimbs seemed adapted for gripping and climbing. It would be about man-height if it straightened up, and Faith estimated its weight as that of a big leopard. She couldn’t even decide whether it was male or female, it was scaled all over, as far as she could see and it exuded an acrid reptilian scent, yet its movements and poise were feline.

Its face was cat-like, low-browed and triangular of jaw. A wedge-shaped, earless skull thrust forward upon a snake-like neck, and it had no more nostrils than a lizard did. Its eyes looked forward with human intensity but were slit-pupiled and showed a swift nictitating membrane. Faith found herself wishing that Giles was here, or even that wimp Wyndam-Pryce, to tell her what it was.

“Where the fuck did you get it?” Faith wanted to know.

“I bought it off a business associate,” Marius explained, “who bought it in Egypt from a trader who said it came from Numidian tribesmen, who claim to have caught it when a hilltop exploded.”

“A hilltop exploded?” Faith asked incredulously.

“So they claim,” Marius shrugged.

Studying the creature once more, Faith wondered if that meant it had come from another plain of existence or something; gods how she wished she had a proper watcher just now. No doubt she would end up fighting it and it would be nice to know if it was likely to spring any surprises on her. It didn’t look exceptionally strong; she'd killed things bigger and meaner than the sauropithecus looked before. Its physical prowess didn’t worry her too much; it was the intelligence in its eyes that unsettled her. A quick clever opponent was always harder to kill than a big dumb one. It was only then that Faith’s eyes fell on the cage itself.

“It’s in an iron cage,” she looked closely at the lock. “and the door's welded shut.”

“It broke the wooden cage it was put in,” Marius stepped even further away from the caged creature, “and it picked the lock on this cage.”

Faith shook her head, this was some serious critter, a lot of people couldn’t pick locks; not even the simple ones the Romans used. 

“What are you going to do with it?” Faith found herself stepping away from the cage to join Marius and linking her arm through his.

“I-I was…” the words dried in Marius’ mouth, he looked down at Faith and patted her hand where it rested on his arm. “Do you mind if we go back to my office? This thing,” he gestured at the sauropithecus, “it-it worries me.”

0=0=0=0

The sauropithecus watched as the plump male and his female left, sniffing the air and all its multitude of scents the lizard-man sat back in his cage and waited until the two creatures where out of sight. He ran his hands over his head, a gesture he made when he was deep in thought; of the two scaleless prey the female was by far the most dangerous, he could smell the death on her. Wondering idly if the females of this world were more dangerous than the males, the sauropithecus went back to work loosening the bars to his prison. Although they had trapped him in this cool dark place and he felt lethargic of thought and sluggish of movement he would soon be free. Then he would test himself against the females of this world.

0=0=0=0

Feeling the wine warm its way down into her belly, Faith felt a lot better now she was away from that creature. Every fibre of her being warned her that it was evil, or at least malignant, and would have to die. But, how would she convince Marius to let her get rid of the onerous thing?

“Like I said,” Faith rested her wine cup on her knee, “what are you going to do with it?”

“I was hoping that I could sell it to some private collector,” Marius took another swig of wine before he continued, “or maybe set it against some other wild beasts.” Seeing the look on Faith’s face he asked, “What do you think I should do? I’m beginning to wish I’d never bought the accursed creature.”

“You really want my opinion?” Faith leant forward letting Marius get a good look down the front of her dress if he wanted to. This must be serious; Faith whistled silently to herself, Marius’ eyes didn’t even flicker in the direction of her breasts, he must be really scared, “Let me kill it.”

“What?” Marius snapped back to reality and stared at Faith as if she was mad.

“Well you asked,” Faith replied defensively.

“But-but the cost!” wailed the slave dealer, “I’ll lose a fortune if I just let you kill it,” he shook his head, “no, no thank-you for offering but I must think on this,” he drained his wine cup, “The damn thing might scare the life out of me but I have my business to think of. Let me ask around. If I can’t find a buyer then you can kill it.” A crafty look came to his eye, “Perhaps you could kill it as part of an invitation only entertainment?” he looked hopefully at Faith.

“I was thinking of spearing it while it was still in its cage,” Faith drained her wine and stood up, “look, ya know where to find me…just make ya mind up quick, eh?”

“I will,” Marius stared after Faith as she walked away, “I will,” he repeated quietly.

0=0=0=0

The next morning Faith found herself walking near The House of Atia, she had no particular purpose in being there, and Marius hadn’t called her to rid himself of the sauropithecus; with no other call on her time Faith was at a loss what to do with herself. This was why she found herself standing outside the big house looking in through the gates and into the courtyard.

Much to her surprise Faith saw Titus Pullo fully engaged in a mock-fight with the youth she knew as Octavian. It had to be a mock-fight because Pullo lost and both party’s were using wooden practice swords. Leaning against the gate Faith watched as the two contestants fenced with sword and shield exchanging carefully choreographed thrusts and parries. After a jab to the throat from the edge of his opponents shield, Pullo appeared to stagger back while Octavian advanced and placed the edge of his sword behind Pullo’s knee and mimed hamstringing him. Pullo fell dramatically to the ground feigning death as the boy presented his sword point at his throat.

A burst of applause came from what sounded like two women positioned behind the gate where Faith couldn’t see. There was movement as a well dressed woman came into view and kissed the youth on the cheek (much to his embarrassment). Faith could now see it was Atia herself and her daughter Octavia. There was much excited chatter as the two women congratulated the boy on his prowess with the gladius and Pullo was praised on his training methods. Faith noticed that Atia took Pullo aside for a moment and spoke rapidly and quietly to him as she passed him a heavy purse of coins. After a few more words of encouragement Atia and Octavia disappeared into the house, Faith choose this moment to wander nonchalantly into the yard.

“Pullo you old dog!” she called happily across the yard to where the big ex-soldier was collecting up practice swords.

“Fidelia!” A big grin split Pullo’s face as he looked up to see her standing before him, “What are you doing here?”

“Just passing by, heard a fight, so I thought; must be my main man Pullo,” Faith returned Pullo’s grin as he gathered her in his arms and gave her a squeeze.

“Come,” Pullo gestured to a bench at the side of the courtyard, “Sit for awhile.”

Faith sat and watched as Pullo helped the teenager out of his practice armour.

“Do you have to let your women into my mother’s house, Pullo?” The curly haired youth asked as Pullo pulled the armour over his head.

“Fidelia is no man’s ‘woman’ young dominus,” Pullo explained while giving Faith a conspiratorial wink, “don’t you remember? This is Fidelia Venetrix who helped rescue you in Gaul and that killed the creature that was pretending to be senator what’s-his-name…or so the story goes.”

“So,” Octavian gave Faith a long calculating look, “you’re the gladiatrix who wrecked and set fire to my room?”

“The same,” Faith bowed towards the boy trying not to laugh at his earnest words and look.

“Then I’m indebted to you,” Octavian sat down on the bench next to Faith and called to a slave to bring them water, “I’d been trying to get my mother to redecorate, but she refused. After you’d done your business she had no choice.”

“Glad I could help out,” Faith took a cup of water from a slave, “so old Pullo's been teaching you how to fight?”

“Yes,” Octavian looked down at the cobbles, “another of my mother’s ideas. I fear I will never be more than a middling swordsman, and the cemeteries are full of middling swordsman.”

“I like him, Pullo,” Faith turned to her friend, “he’s got brains.”

“Come-come, young dominus,” Pullo tried to jolly the teenager along, “I’ve seen you kill you’ve got it in you to be a right terror.”

“Yes I dare say I can kill,” Octavian looked from Pullo to Faith, “as long as I have some people like either of you to do the fighting for me.”

Watching the boy’s expression, Faith realised he was being deadly serious.

“Whatever,” Pullo conceded as he stood up, “it’s about time we got on with the other part of your mother’s instructions.”

“Pullo couldn’t you say I’m sick?” pleaded the youngster.

“What’s wrong?” Faith stood up joining the two men as they started to walk towards the gate.

“Atia wants him to have ‘penetrated’ someone by the end of the day,” Pullo explained, “I’m to take him to a brothel and get him laid,” before adding, “his honour’s mother gave me a very heavy purse too.”

Again Faith had difficulty hiding her amusement, she wondered if the Romans would ever stop surprising her. They were out on the street by now heading towards the better class brothels behind the Venereal Temple. Octavian walked with his head hung like he was going to his execution rather than his first visit to a brothel; Faith felt she needed to cheer the teenager up.

“Don’t worry, young…um…dominus,” Faith turned her head to hide her smile, she didn’t want the boy to think she was mocking him, “ain’t nothing to it… easy as falling off a horse.”

“And just as humiliating,” sulked Octavian, “and if it’s so easy why does everyone make such a fuss about it?” Octavian stopped in the middle of the road, “Pullo, why must we go to a brothel?”

“Because that’s where the prostitutes are?” Pullo answered confused; he looked at Faith for support.

“He’s right,” agreed Faith, “prostitutes-brothels go together like…”

“Couldn’t we go somewhere else?” Octavian sounded like any teenager being forced to do something he really didn’t want to.

Pullo scratched the stubble on his head and looked even more confused.

“Not a brothel you say?” He blew out his cheeks and looked around, as he did so his eyes fell on Faith.

“What?” Faith asked when she noticed the direction of Pullo’s gaze; realisation of what Pullo was thinking burst in her mind like a sunrise, “NO!”

“Why not?” whispered Pullo drawing Faith by the arm across the street away from Octavian, “it’s not like he’s ugly or anything.”

“I’ll tell you why not!” Faith pulled her arm away from Pullo’s hand, “It’d be like robbing the cradle, that’s why.”

“Can’t see why,” Pullo was looking honestly confused at Faith’s objection, he peeped over her head to where the teenager stood, “and anyway you’d get to break him in like…a man always remembers his first, and the young dominus there’s going places he could be a useful friend.”

“Do you?”

“Do I what?” 

“Remember your first woman?”

“What? Of course!” Pullo blustered, dredging his memory for the girl’s name, “her name was…um…Vorena.”

“That’s the name of Vorenus’ daughters.” Faith pointed out, hands on hips.

“Come on Fidelia,” pleaded Pullo, “you’re a woman of the world…what’s one more small cock?” Pullo stepped back quickly as Faith pulled back her fist, “We can share the purse!” he added quickly.

“How much?” Faith relaxed and let her arm fall to her side, after all there was no harm in asking.

“Half and half.” suggested Pullo quickly.

“Get real, lover, two thirds for me,” was Faith’s counter offer, “After all I’m doing all the work.”

After a couple of more minutes haggling they agreed on three fifths for Faith and two fifths for Pullo.

“Right…, dominus,” Pullo called as he and Faith rejoined Octavian on the opposite side of the street, “if it’s all right with you Fidelia here has agreed to do the um…business.”

Octavian looked at Faith and fidgeted uncomfortably, “I suppose so…where?”

“Yes where?” Pullo looked at Faith hoping for an answer.

“Come on,” Faith turned and started to head away from the Venereal Temple, “we can do it at my place. Pullo can guard the door and make sure we’re not disturbed,” and make sure you don’t escape, she added to herself.

“You don’t live in some low fetid place do you?” Octavian still appeared reluctant to go with Faith, “my mother said I wasn’t to catch anything.”

“Not the right thing to say,” Pullo muttered to the boy as Faith turned on her heel to stand belligerently in front of the youth.

“I’ll have you know,” Faith poked Octavian in the chest with her finger, “if I thought for one minute that you were implying that I have the pox…I’d cut you down were you stand whoever you are.”

“Of course not, I-I’d never say…” Octavian turned pale and swallowed hard, luckily self preservation saved him from an untimely demise, “I apologise if any of my words may have suggested that you were anything but a friend doing me a favour.”

“That’s alright then,” mollified Faith turned about and headed for her rooms, Pullo and Octavian trailing in her wake.

0=0=0=0

Pullo stood outside Faith’s door as she pushed Octavian in ahead of her; he caught her by the arm and whispered in her ear.

“Be gentle with him, Fidelia, don’t frighten the lad, eh?”

“Don’t worry,” a grin once more crossed Faith’s lips, “I won’t break him. You can take him back to mommy in one piece…once I’ve finished with him!”

Before he could do or say anything Faith was through the door and had locked it behind her, there was nothing he could do now other than pick up the pieces.

0=0=0=0


	10. Chapter 10

10\. 

**Gladius and the Bestia.**

Leaning against the wall next to Faith’s door, Titus Pullo listened with half an ear to the cries of ‘passion’ that emanated from within. If the truth was told Pullo’s experience of how the upper classes conducted themselves in the bed chamber was probably even sketchier than Faith’s. To his uncomplicated mind Pullo had just assumed that the nobility did things much in the same way as the lower orders. So the cries of, what could only be pain and the sounds of leather on flesh worried him more than a little and once or twice made him wince. For a moment he had been worried for Faith’s welfare; but, he rationalised, she was a big girl and was quite capable of giving as good as she got. The memory of a left hook to the jaw made him rub his cheek involuntarily. The sound of running feet from the direction of the stairway jerked him back to watchfulness and he turned to see a boy of about ten or eleven years run towards him.

“Where’s the fire?” Pullo asked jokingly as the boy dodged around him and lifted his hand to pound on Faith’s door, “Hold on!” Pullo grabbed the boy and pulled him away from the door and demanded, “What’s your game?”

“My master Marius the Slave Dealer needs to speak with domina Fidelia,” piped the boy in heavily accented Latin, “it’s urgent,” he added hopefully.

“Well,” Pullo pushed the boy to the opposite side of the stairway; “it’ll have to wait,” Pullo looked around then back at the boy, “she’s busy.”

0=0=0=0

Across the city in a damp loft the sauropithecus gnawed on the bones of the woman he’d recently killed and partially consumed. Gnawing on her bones he broke them in two and sucked out the marrow, he’d killed her the night before and dragged her up to the loft where he could enjoy his meal undisturbed. He’d overestimated the combat capabilities of the scaleless females; this one had only put up token resistance and after a short struggle had succumbed to his attack.

This had puzzled him at first but the need to feed had been upon him so at the time so he’d not thought much about it. Now he was satiated he could think more clearly. He’d expected a stiff fight from the female and he had been quite prepared to call off his attack and seek easier prey if the female proved too dangerous. But here she lay dead and half consumed. Maybe he’d been mistaken about the female who’d seen him while he’d still been trapped in the cage. No, his instincts had never been that wrong before. The way she had moved, the scent from her, the way the soft male acted around her it all added up to a dangerous predator.

Then a thought struck him; maybe there were different types of female? Maybe some where just simple breeders while others were fighters and hunters. His race memory told him of such creatures. Yes, he thought as he left his kill and climbed out onto the roof; that must be it, he would be careful and watch out for these warrior females. Standing up he looked out across the rooftops of this stinking rambling nest of scale-less bipeds, he sniffed the air and he was sure he could scent her. Her smell was masked by another’s but he was sure it was her. Lying down on the thatched roof the sauropithecus stretched out to bask in the sun as he digested his meal.

0=0=0=0

Startled, Pullo looked up as the door to Faith’s apartment was violently pulled open and Octavian stumbled, blinking, out into the early afternoon sun.

“Are you alright, young dominus?” Pullo was concerned as he saw the dazed look on the youth’s face.

“Pay the woman, Pullo,” Octavian licked his dry lips and started to pull his tunic straight, “then let us return to my mother’s house.”

“Right you are then sir.” Pullo stepped carefully passed Octavian and looked into Faith’s room; he caught a glimpse of her splashing water on her face as she stood naked in the light from an opened window, “I’ll leave the money by the door then,” he called; getting no answer he placed the purse on the floor by the door, “there’s a messenger as well.” 

Still getting no answer he shrugged and signalled for the boy to wait. Turning back to the corridor he collected Octavian and started to head for the street.

“Well, young dominus,” he began with a conspiratorial wink, “how was it then? Worth the wait eh?” and the expense he added to himself with a shrug.

“Pullo,” Octavian came to a halt bringing Pullo up short with a hand firmly on his chest, “I’d appreciate it if we never spoke of this again…if my mother asks you anything; make up some story that you think is believable.”

“Of course.” Pullo replied uncertainly, gods below, he thought and turned to look back at Faith’s building, what in Hades had she done to the lad?

0=0=0=0

After splashing more water onto her face, Faith began towelling herself dry, she could sense the boy standing in the doorway now that Octavian and Pullo had left.

“What do you want?” Faith asked without turning, “Come in and shut the door while I dress.”

The boy turned and pushed the door shut before turning back to stare at Faith, after a moment he remembered why he was here.

“M-my master Marius asks that you come to his office as soon as you can.”

“Does he now, you know why?” Faith slipped a dress over her head.

“No domina,” the boy sounded relieved now that Faith was dressed, “he just said to come quickly.”

Sitting down on the couch by the window Faith sighed and pushed the shutters open letting some fresh air and light into the room; she glanced over her shoulder at the messenger.

“Tell Marius I’ll be there as soon as I can…now piss off!”

The boy turned and fumbled with the door catch for a second before pulling the door open and running off down the corridor leaving Faith alone.

0=0=0=0

Looking out of the window Faith wondered what was to become of her. Picking up the polished brass mirror that she kept on the table by the couch; she looked at her blurred reflection with something approaching disgust.

“Whore!” she said to her reflection spitting the word out as if it left a bitter taste in her mouth.

What had she been thinking? Had she really sunk so low? Sex for money, Faith shook her head in revulsion. What had happened to sex for her own gratification? Maybe she should hang up one of those penis signs the brothels used and have done with it. Give up the fighting and slaying; make her living on her back. Laughing bitterly she wondered perhaps that guy with the bull whip, all those years ago, had been right when he told her she was sitting on a fortune. Was that all she was worth? Was she just a whore who just happened to be a slayer? No, she shook her head, she was better than that she told herself hopefully.

“Come on, Faith,” even to her ears her name came out as Fidelia, she put down the mirror. “Let’s go see what Marius’s got all excited about…perhaps he wants to propose again?” This time Faith’s laugh had some real amusement in it, maybe this time she’d say ‘yes’.

Pushing herself up from the couch, Faith walked across the room to the door, her foot kicked against the purse that still lay on the floor where Pullo had left it. Bending she picked it up and weighed it in her hand, she smiled. Another contribution for the Faith retirement fund, perhaps she wouldn’t need to marry Marius after all.

0=0=0=0

Mascius ran the collegiate where Faith lived from a brothel a couple of streets over from her apartment. Today he’d been accepting bribes from people who wanted him to do things for them. A butcher called Nerva had given him a healthy bribe to help find his wife Fabia. It appeared that Fabia had disappeared the previous night and was nowhere to be found. Neither friends or neighbours had see sight or sound of her since then; Mascius had promised to look into the mystery for the man, it had after all been a good bribe and Mascius had a reputation to uphold. He sent three of his henchmen to ask around, they’d find nothing of course but he had to make it look as if he had tried. The silly tart had probably run off with a lover or got herself knifed and dumped into a sewer somewhere.

0=0=0=0

“It’s escaped!” Marius cried as he greeted Faith, he wrung his hands together as he paced up and down his office. “If it was to come to light that a dangerous creature had escaped from my pens it’ll be the arena for me.”

“What’s escaped?” Faith half suspected the answer.

“The sauropithecus!” Marius grabbed Faith by the shoulders and attempted to shake her as if she was just some stupid slave.

Marius stopped and let his arms fall to his sides when he realised that his best efforts weren’t moving the venetrix one inch and she was starting to look really angry.

“Apologies,” Marius hung his head in embarrassment and took a step away from Faith.

“Right,” Faith let out a breath she’d not noticed she’d been holding, “tell me what’s gone wrong.”

“It’s quicker if I show you.” Marius turned and headed off into the rows of pens behind his office.

0=0=0=0

Faith examined the bars of the cage while Marius stood behind her bemoaning his likely fate if anyone found out about this. He hopped from foot to foot as if he wanted to use the privy. Walking around the cage Faith saw that the sauropithecus had patiently loosened and removed a couple of bars from their sockets in the wooden floor of the cage and then bent the two bars either side of the hole thus making it big enough for it to climb out of the cage. This wasn’t the work of a dumb animal. The creature had shown patience and fore thought in its escape and not just tried to rip the cage apart.

“When did you notice it was gone?” Faith looked around on the dusty ground for tracks; the area was too scuffed up to show anything out of the ordinary.

“This morning when my men came to feed it.”

Faith looked at Marius sharply, “This morning?” Marius nodded his head as Faith looked up to gauge the time; it was about mid to late afternoon. “Ya waited nearly all day before you called me, after all that I’d said yesterday?”

Marius nodded guiltily, “I thought it would come back when it was hungry,” he added lamely.

Faith clenched her fists and looked up at the sky seeking divine help, “Save me from retards,” she looked back at Marius sharply, “Didn’t ya realise that the creature was a hunter and maybe it could get its own food to go?”

Marius looked miserably at the ground and shrugged his shoulders, “Please help me Fidelia…I’ll pay you!”

“Damn right you’ll pay me,” Faith headed back towards Marius’ office raising a small cloud of dust as she walked.

Marius trotted after her as a crafty little smile played around his lips; if he played this fortuitous situation correctly not only could he kill or recapture the sauropithecus. But he might also be able to persuade Fidelia to marry him; after all look at the mess he’d made of this present state of affairs. It was her duty to keep him on the path of light…in fact it was her public duty to marry him.

0=0=0=0

“Come on,” Pius turned to look at his fellows, “it’s getting dark. Let’s go back and tell Mascius the silly bitch ran off with a Syrian or something?”

“Yeah,” Vitus looked up and down another of Rome’s narrow alleys, “we’ve looked enough, and if that butcher bastard doesn’t like it, he can suck my cock!”

“Chop it off more like,” Aliea laughed and turned to walk back to the brothel, “have you seen the size of his chopper?”

The three laughed lewdly at the old joke as they turned and walked back the way they’d come, above them a tile slid from the roof.

“’Ere wots that?” Vitus looked up into the darkening evening sky and tried to decide if he’s actually seen a shape move up there or was it just his imagination?

0=0=0=0

Having spent the rest of the afternoon looking for some trace of the sauropithecus, Faith had come up monster-less; she’d even had her neighbour Rissa ask around. But no one had heard or seen anything unusual and there'd been no unexplained disappearances. Although she had no proof, Faith was willing to bet that the sauropithecus would ‘chow down’ on people sooner or later and knowing her luck it would be sooner. Rissa had laughed when Faith had mentioned ‘unexplained disappearances’ they tended to happen all the time. But her eyes had lit up when she looked at the coins Faith had slipped into her hand and she’d rushed off eagerly to do Faith’s detective work for her.

Walking back to her apartment, Faith kept her ears open for any sound that might denote that the sauropithecus had put in an appearance. Once home she changed into her fighting clothes; grey britches, grey dress with the slits up the side to allow her legs easy movement, her heavy soldier’s sandals, her wide leather belt from which she hung her favourite knife. Walking over to a high shelf she got down the sword that Vorenus had dropped in the fighting outside the senate house, picking up her sharpening stone she sat down on her couch by the window and slowly and steadily sharpened the sword to a razor’s edge.

0=0=0=0

“I tell you I saw something.” Vitus drew his knife as he looked up towards the rooftops.

“Probably a cat, you silly sod,” Aliea started to walk purposely down the alley towards home. “AGH!”

“What?” Pius turned around at the sound of the straggled cry and whipped the long wicked looking dagger from his belt, “What was that? Where’s Aliea?”

Vitus backed up the alley towards his confederate, he’d seen something reach down and grab Aliea by the head before lifting him up into the night sky.

“Fuck this for a game of legionaries!” Vitus turned to run off down the alley; this was no place for a good honest street rough, he stopped short as he came up against the end of the alley.

With blinding clarity Vitus realised why they called them ‘dead-ends’.

“Get back here, you stupid bastard,” Pius called from back down the alley, “It’s just Aliea pissing about. There’s nothin’ to be sca…!”

Vitus spun and faced the alley, now both of his friends had vanished. Cautiously he walked down the dark empty alley holding his knife out in front of him.

“Come on guys,” he called softly, “stop pissing around will ya?”

There was a sound like someone dropping from the roof and landing in the alley behind him. He turned as quickly as he could just in time to see a glittering blue hand slash towards his throat. With a startled cry, Vitus fell backwards as he dropped his knife and tried to staunch the blood that squirted from his neck. As the darkness closed in around him his last sight was of a blue painted man standing over him licking his blood from its fingers.

0=0=0=0

Striding along the deserted street, Faith’s skirt flapped around her legs and the hobnails on the souls of her sandals clicked on the cobbles. While there wasn’t exactly a spring in her step, an unbiased observer would have told you that there was a woman who had found new purpose in her life. It was true, Faith had realised that the only time she felt really happy was when she was hunting down demons or creatures like this sauropithecus. The fights in the arena or in rich bastards’ homes, the ‘very’ occasional bouts of whoring were fine for giving her cash so she could live comfortably and allow herself to concentrate on her true calling in life…being ‘The Slayer’.

Whistling quietly to herself as she felt the comforting weight of the sword on her hip, she realised that this was what she lived for; the hunt. After all wasn’t that what they called her, Fidelia Venetrix? Somehow she had lost her way there for a few days and she’d started to do things just for the profit not because it was her ‘calling’. No one should get her wrong, profit was good, she wasn’t going to give away all her money and go live in a cave anytime soon. But, from now on she needed to get her priorities right. The smell of blood brought her to a sudden halt.

Sniffing, Faith backed up a few paces which allowed her to peer down the side alley she’d just passed. To any normal person the alley would have seemed a star lit cavern with deep impenetrable shadows. Her slayer eyesight enabled her to clearly pick out the body of the man lying on the floor and the sauropithecus crouching over him. Faith smiled a smile of pure joy as she drew her sword and stepped into the alley.

0=0=0=0

The sauropithecus smelt her before he saw her. He’d been distracted by his kill and licking the still warm blood from his fingers he’d not noticed the warrior female walk past the end of the alley. His attack on the three males had been ridiculously easy, he’d killed all three in mere moments, they’d not event tried to fight back. If he had been capable of laughing he would have. Now the warrior-female challenged him, she held one of those sharp-hard-sticks that the scaleless bipeds used instead of claws, in her paw but not like the others had done. They’d held their sharp-hard-sticks as if their mere presence was enough to frighten him away. The warrior-female held hers like she was going to use it as it had been designed to be used. Hissing his challenge the sauropithecus stood over his kill ready to defend it against the warrior-female.

0=0=0=0

“Hello beastie,” Faith breathed the words softly as she advanced towards the killer, she didn’t want to startle it and have to chase it through Rome; she smiled wryly as the sauropithecus hissed at her and crouched ready to pounce, “don’t think he’s planning on going anywhere.”

The creature sprang leading with its fore paws, fingers spread, talons ready to rip her into red ruin, Faith turned to allow the creature to charge passed her. As it blundered by she lashed out with her foot and felt it connect with the sauropithecus’s knee joint. The monster howled in pain, but that didn’t stop it from turning, seemingly in mid leap and coming at her again.

This time the sauropithecus came in slower as it reconsidered its tactics in the light of experience. It lashed out at Faith with its razor tipped hands, she was just quick enough to jump back and bring her sword up to parry the blows. Feeling the sword cut into flesh she heard a faint ‘snick-click’ as something hard fell onto the cobbles. Faith launched her own attack with the point of her sword. The wickedly sharp blade flashed through the creatures guard as if it wasn’t there and she felt the blade bite into the creature’s chest. This time when the sauropithecus howled it wasn’t in anger it was in pain. For a moment the two fighters circled each other, each looking for an opening in the other’s defences.

This time when the sauropithecus attacked it made a faint attack with its fore paws, when Faith brought up her sword to block the perceived attack and launch her own counter, she was caught unbalanced as the sauropithecus brought up it leg and punched forward with it aiming at her stomach no doubt hoping to disembowel her. Instead Faith was knocked back against the wall of the alley as the blow knocked the breath from her lungs. The creature’s long toe claws punched through her thick leather belt and drew blood from her belly.

Gasping for air Faith stabbed upwards with her sword catching the sauropithecus in the thigh. With her free hand she snatched the knife from her belt and slashed at the creature's head, again she felt her blade bite into flesh and the sauropithecus howled in pain once more. Pushing against Faith’s stomach the sauropithecus sprang away from her and started to head for the alley’s exit. Pushing off, the creature had driven its claws harder into Faith’s stomach. After letting out a short groan of pain she chased after the blue scaled monster.

0=0=0=0


	11. Chapter 11

11: 

**Sex, Lies and Sewers.**

“Torture him.” ordered Octavian as he crouched in the sewer next to Pullo, a third man cowered before them in the flickering light of a torch.

“Juno’s cunt but you’re salty,” Pullo gasped in surprise, “and I was worried about bringing you.”

“Go on then.” Octavian gestured towards their victim.

“Erm...I’ve never actually tortured anyone,” Pullo admitted haltingly, a hint of embarrassment in his voice, “I don’t know how.”

“You don’t know how?” Octavian turned to look at his confederate in surprise.

“In the army they have specialists,” Pullo explained with a shrug.

“Why not cut off his thumbs?” Octavian suggested.

“That’s good enough…it’s a start,” Pullo drew his knife.

“Niobe and I where lovers!” cried the third man close to tears, “I confess it!”

Pullo looked at the man in shock his knife hovering over his victim’s thumbs.

“Kill me if you must,” sobbed the man who was in fact the husband of Niobe’s sister.

Pullo drew back his arm preparing to drive his knife through the man’s throat and into the wall beyond.

“Hold!” ordered Octavian stopping Pullo with just the authority of his voice, Pullo lowered his blade, “What else?” demanded Octavian flatly.

“Nothing else,” pleaded the adulterer, “kill me.”

“You’re lying again,” announced Octavian wearily, “you stand at Pluto’s door, would you sully his threshold with lies?”

“I’ve done talking,” breathed the man resignedly.

“Cut off his thumbs,” ordered the youth.

The man screamed as Pullo cut off his thumbs one after the other and threw them into the fetid water that flowed passed them.

“The child!” gasped the man through his pain, “The child is mine.”

“What child?” Pullo asked puzzled.

“Lucius, the baby…please kill me now…please!”

“Vorena’s son?” Pullo wondered what the baby of Vorenus’ eldest daughter had to do with anything.

“Niobe’s son,” groaned the man seconds before Pullo buried his knife in his stomach.

Faith came upon the scene just as Pullo rolled the man’s bleeding corpse in to the water.

0=0=0=0

After Faith had chased the sauropithecus out of the alley, it had zigzagged along the street and at one point it looked as if it was going to climb up the sheer wall of one of the houses that made up the side of the street. However, as soon as the monster put all its weight on its injured leg to boast itself upwards it let out a roar of pain and bounced down into the street again. Stopping to glance back at Faith the sauropithecus hissed exposing its needle like teeth to her.

Grinning through her pain, Faith ran after the beast as the wounds in her stomach started to burn like fire; she hoped that the sauropithecus’ claws weren’t poisoned. Ignoring the pain she pursued the creature around a corner only to find it had vanished. Skidding to a halt Faith took a firm grip of her sword and knife before walking cautiously along the centre of the street. So intent was she on watching the shadows that she nearly missed the black circle that was the manhole that led down into the sewers.

0=0=0=0

Breathing hard, Faith leant against the crumbling brick wall of the sewer, “What the fuck are you two doing down here?” she eyed the corpse as it floated by, “or shouldn’t I ask?”

“No you shouldn’t,” Octavian ordered without a trace of fear or guilt. “you will never speak of this.”

Faith almost said ‘Or what?’ But instead she said, “Hey, I saw nothing,” she held up her bloodied sword forgetting it was still in her hand.

Octavian flinched away from her as Pullo moved to interpose himself between Faith and the youth.

“No business of mine what you guys are doing in a sewer late at night,” Faith admitted.

“You have a good point, Fidelia,” interjected Octavian before Pullo could say anything, “May I ask what you are doing down here with a bloody sword in your hand?”

“Oh that!” Faith tried to hide the sword behind her back, then realising the foolishness of her actions she smiled mockingly, “I don’t suppose you’ve seen a blue lizard-man down here have you?”

“A what?” Pullo put away his knife.

“As Pullo says,” Octavian looked at her as if she was more than slightly mad, “A what?”

“Lizard-man,” Faith explained further, “Blue, you can’t miss him.” Seeing the perplexed looks on her companion’s faces she sighed and slumped down onto the walkway that ran along the sewer wall, “Cack…musta gone the other way,” looking down the tunnel into the darkness she asked, “how far do these sewers stretch?”

“All over the city,” Octavian replied, “are you trying to tell us some sort of wild beast is loose down here?

“Never catch it now,” Faith struggled up into a crouch, “we gotta be outta here before it comes back, I don’t want to try and fight it down here.”

Pullo and Octavian followed her back to the ladder leading to the surface. Climbing out onto the street again Faith saw the sky starting to lighten towards the east; damn-it, she thought, I musta been chasing it all fucking night! Turning she saw Pullo and Octavian having a huddled conversation on the other side of the road from her, she heard snatches of conversation like, “…Vorenus must never find out…” and “…the boy is Niobe’s and…” Faith turned away from the two men and rubbed at the wounds in her stomach; eventually, Octavian and Pullo came over to her rather in the same way as a delegation might.

“I take it we can rely on your discretion?” Octavian wanted to know.

“Like I said,” Faith slid her sword and knife back into their scabbards, “nothing to do with me what you’re doing in a sewer in the middle of the night…likewise I’d rather not have folks know I was chasing somethin’ down there.” Faith rubbed her belly where the sauropithecus had clawed her again; maybe she should see a doctor.

“That’ll be easy,” Octavian explained with a wave of his had, “no one would believe your story anyway.” The teenager’s brow furrowed as he noticed the blood on the front of Faith’s dress, “Are you wounded…if you need a physician I can…”

The world started to spin around Faith as she realised that the sauropithecus’ claws must have their own venom and she'd been running around helping it pump its way around her body. As the cobble stones rushed up towards her face she vaguely heard Octavian call to Pullo.

“Catch her, Pullo.”

0=0=0=0

Letting the sluggish current take it, the sauropithecus allowed himself to be washed under the dock where it reached out with a taloned hand and took hold of one of the wooden peers that held the dock up from the water. It would soon be dawn and he needed somewhere to rest and let his injuries heal. The warrior-female had almost got the better of him because he had underestimated her, as it was he had been seriously wounded. If the sauropithecus’ language allowed for curses he would have cursed himself for his foolishness.

He wouldn’t make the same mistakes again, the next time he met the warrior-female he must kill her and eat her. His instincts told him that once she was gone the rest of the scaleless bipeds would be incapable of stopping him and he could roam this world hunting where he pleased. Climbing up into the jumble of wooden pillars that made up the underside of the dock the sauropithecus wedged himself in the space between two pillars and settled down to sleep. Tonight or tomorrow would be soon enough to hunt down the warrior-female and feast on her flesh.

0=0=0=0

Struggling with the monster, Faith could feel the sauropithecus’ fetid breath on her cheek. It held her arms down by her sides as it reached for her neck with its teeth. Snaking an arm free Faith managed to get her hand under its jaw, she pushed its head back exposing its neck; if only she could free her knife hand the thing would be dead in seconds. Abruptly she felt the scales move under her hand, with growing revulsion Faith pulled the skin from the creature’s face.

“Hi Faith!” Buffy smiled at her as she shook out her long blonde hair, “What's the matter?” taunted Sauro-Buffy, “All that killing…you afraid to die?” 

Faith screamed with rage as she plunged her knife into Buffy-pithecus’ heart.

“Hey-hey!” A male voice called from behind her, turning Faith came face to face with Mayor Wilkins.

“Boss?”

“Now Faith,” Wilkins picked the knife out of Faith’s grasp with his thumb and forefinger, “what have I told you about keeping your place tidy?” Wilkins wrapped the bloody knife in cling-film before placing it on a handy table, he smiled at her, “How’s my best girl?”

“Fine boss, fine.” Faith looked around in confusion; she was back in her old apartment in Sunnydale everything was as she had left it before the fight with Buffy. Faith, however knew this was all a dream, for a start Wilkins had never worn a toga, “What about you?”

“Not so good, Faith,” for a moment Wilkins looked sad before looking up at her again with a wide grin splitting face, “But hey, I’m not here to talk about my problems I’ve come to see how my girl Faith is doing.”

“Gee thanks, boss,” in a flash Faith found herself lying on a couch in a garden attached to a large villa, “What the?”

“This is your new home, Faith,” Wilkins explained as he stepped into her field of view and sat down on a couch next to hers, “Nice isn’t it? Though I’d speak to your slaves about the cleaning…dust everywhere,” Wilkins made a face and wiped his hands on the hem of his toga.

“This isn’t my home,” Faith sat up and looked around, “I live in a one room apartment near the Street of Potters…I can’t afford all this!”

“Hey, chill-out, as you young people say.” Wilkins took a cup of wine from a passing slave, “this is one of those ‘what might be’ deals.” He sipped the wine and grimaced, “Oh, strong drink…I hope you’re not overindulging, once the demon drink gets a hold on you…and hey, I know all about demons.”

“If this is ‘what might be’ what’s the alternative?” Faith studied a group of children who played at the other end of the garden. “If this is the good part what’s the down side.”

“That’s my Faith,” Wilkins smiled as proudly as any father would, “always questioning,” Wilkins hesitated for a moment before speaking again, “The other isn’t so good.”

Feeling the world lurch around her Faith found herself standing in a cavern with a lot of other young women. While Wilkins and herself where dressed in Roman styles the girls were dressed in modern clothing. Faith found herself looking out over a huge cave filled with vicious man-like creatures that started to climb the cliff that would take them to the area where the girls stood. As she watched she saw the loathsome creatures climb over the edge of the cliff and attack the girls, they didn’t stand a chance. The girls were quickly ripped apart except for two who fought back to back cutting down the monsters until eventually they too were born down under the crush of monsters and torn limb from limb.

Faith watched in horror as Buffy and herself were killed and devoured, gasping at the horror of it all she turned away from the sight of her death and found she was standing in the garden again, she felt something tug at her dress. Looking down she saw a girl of about four or five with long dark curly hair falling about her tear streaked face, she held up her arms to Faith.

“Mama?” she sniffed.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Faith asked kindly as she picked up the child and turned to look at Wilkins; but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Boss?”

0=0=0=0

“No, it is I, Marius.”

Faith opened her eyes to see the concerned face of Marius watching over her. Pulling herself up onto her elbows she looked around to see she was in her own apartment; her Roman apartment; she didn’t know whether to feel happy or sad about that.

“Fuck!” she breathed flopping back on her pillows.

“Well that’s original,” Marius let out a quiet laugh, “most people say, ‘where am I’ but not my Faith.”

“What?” Faith looked at Marius a frown creasing her forehead, had he just called her ‘Faith’ or had she imagined it? “And I’m not your anything,” she added for good measure.

“Of course not.” Marius stood up from where he’d been sitting on the edge of her bed, he walked over to the water pitcher and poured a cup of water before returning and handing it to her, “Foolish of me to presume.” 

Taking the cup Faith drank thirstily and felt just a little twinge of guilt, “Sorry,” she said quietly, “I didn’t mean that like it sounded…what happened? How long have I been…?”

Marius refilled Faith’s cup and handed it back to her, before sitting on a stool next to her bed.

“Your friends Octavian and Pullo brought you back yesterday morning,” Marius almost laughed at the look of shock on Faith’s face, “I have to admit that I never knew you were so well connected. Octavian of all people,” seeing the confusion on Faith’s face he clarified his statement, “Caesar’s nephew no less. They left you here with that neighbour woman…Rissa? Anyway, she sent a boy to find me, I came and got you a doctor and you’ve been unconscious for nearly two days.” 

“Venom!” Faith said the word as if it was the worst swear word she could think of.

“Yes,” agreed Marius, “the sauropithecus must have poisoned you. However, your stubborn nature and the poultice the doctor used to draw out the poison saved you.”

Faith felt down to her stomach to find a big bandage wrapped around her middle, it was then she realised she was naked under the sheets.

“Who?”

“Don’t worry,” reassured Marius, “I turned my back while Rissa undressed you and put you to bed…you’re a funny one, Fidelia. You fight half naked in the arena in front of a bunch of drooling old men. But you get all coy if you think someone might catch a glimpse of your breasts while they’re trying to help you.” Marius shook his head; he’d never understand barbarian women.

“Any news of the sauropithecus?” Faith wriggled her way up the bed until she was sitting up but kept the sheet tightly up around her neck.

“No,” Marius was looking out of the window his back to Faith, “perhaps you killed it?”

“No,” Faith swung her legs out of the bed, “I wounded it, but it managed to run off…and you know what they say about wounded animals?”

Faith stood up and swayed on unsteady legs, in an instant Marius was at her side holding her up. Grabbing hold of his arm to steady herself she looked up into his face. It was odd but in this light he looked an awful lot like a younger Wilkins. For a moment the two locked eyes before Faith looked away.

“Hey thanks,” she muttered looking almost anywhere but at Marius, “Look, thanks an’all but I need to get cleaned up and…well um women’s stuff y’know?”

“Oh yes,” Marius coughed to cover his embarrassment, “of course…I’ll-I’ll leave you then. When you’ve…erm finished come and see me at my office.”

“Yeah right,” Faith still clutched the sheet to her throat as Marius headed for the door, “I’ll do that…see y’there then...”

“Right.” Marius opened the door and strode off down the corridor leaving Faith to run over to the door and close it. 

“Bitch!” she admonished herself.

Cursing herself she rested her back against the door, what was wrong with her? Her dating history had not been exactly covered in glory, letting the sheet fall Faith walked over to her piss-pot and squatted to relieved herself. One loser after another, she got up and poured out water into a bowl to wash. Follow that with a succession of one night stands and meaningless sex, Faith peeled the bandage and poultice from her belly; she examined the yellowish pus that stained the bandage. Deciding it was totally gross she threw the soiled cloth towards the door, she could throw it out later.

Looking down at herself she examined the four red puckered wounds in her belly, they were still weeping a little, she’d have to cover them with a dressing but they’d soon heal. Returning to her ablutions Faith continued with her personal character assassination. Where was she? So she found herself in ancient Rome and not wanting to get pregnant she laid off the sex. But, as soon as she discovered methods of not getting pregnant, there was even a primitive ‘morning after pill’; she went back to her old ways. But to add a new twist now she did it for money. Angrily Faith dried herself off before stomping across the room to where she kept her first aid kit. Sitting down on her couch she started to cut up cloth to make a dressing.

“And the one guy in this, gods’ forsaken hole, who actually cares what happens to me, I treat like shit!” Placing the dressing over the four little wounds Faith stood up and started to bandage herself up. “Okay he’s a bit of a perv…but at least he’s nice about it.” 

Tying up the ends of the bandage Faith thought back to every encounter she’d had with Marius. Apart from a little good natured groping he’d never overstepped the mark; and he’d always stopped when she’d told him to. By the standards of the day he was a nice guy and she'd acted like the worst kind of high school tease towards him.

“‘Women’s stuff’” she groaned, what had that been about? 

Embarrass the guy just to get him out of the room ‘cause she couldn’t take a little friendly concern. Faith pulled on a pair of leather panties and slipped on a dress, then took it off again. Looking through her cupboard she picked out the dress Atia had given her and put it on; she sat down to put on her light sandals. The memory of her dream flooded back into her mind, it seemed obvious to her that she should marry Marius and live out her life here in the past, or somehow go back to the future and die in a hopeless battle. Tying the laces of her sandals, Faith knew which one she preferred. Walking to the door she made up her mind…well sort of…she’d got to do some business of her own then she would have a long talk with Marius. As she walked out of her building and into the street, Faith wondered if all those kids in her dream were hers.

0=0=0=0

Letting himself carefully down into the water the sauropithecus pushed himself off and swam underwater until he was in midstream. Popping to the surface he scanned the dockside; it was nearly dusk and time to go hunting. He’d lived under the dock for a hand of moons now. He’d hunted the unwary bipeds that stumbled by in the night or the silver swimming things that darted through the murky waters of the river. When he was not hunting he was watching and learning. He now considered the city his territory and all that lived there his prey. He knew all the city’s secret tunnels and winding streets as well as he knew himself. He knew the best times to hunt; he knew when the bipeds were at the most dangerous and when it was safe to take them to satisfy his burning hunger. But most of all he knew where the warrior-female was at all times.

One day he would have to fight her again and kill her. He’d almost done so a couple of days after she’d wounded him. As soon as he had recovered from the immediate effects of his wounds he had tracked her to her den. Expecting to find her weakened and near death from the poison he had injected into her, he was shocked to find her up and well, moving around and talking to the soft male that hung around her. If the sauropithecus could feel fear he would have felt it then; she was unnatural and she would need close watching.

So, he followed her around the city whenever he wasn’t hunting or resting. He watched her from the roof tops as she went about her daily business which invariably ended with her going to the place where the soft male did whatever he did. After a double hand of days the two bipeds started to couple almost every day. At first the sauropithecus had been worried that the two creatures might kill each other during these mating bouts. There seemed to be a lot of screaming and thrashing about and he had been amazed that the warrior-female hadn’t killed her mate…he must be tougher than he looked. These scaleless bipeds where a puzzle of contradictions to the sauropithecus.

He would have to kill the warrior-female and do it soon there was no need to wait any longer. He was fully recovered, he was stronger than he’d been for a long time and his scales shone in the sunlight like the blue stones of his home world. Yes he would challenge her soon…but maybe he would wait a little longer. All this coupling she was doing surely she would become heavy with eggs before long, then he would strike and feast on her and her clutch.

0=0=0=0


	12. Chapter 12

12.

**Tuus et terminare Oedipus.**

Lying with her head resting on Marius’ chest, Faith sighed with contentment, sometimes it was nice just to cuddle. Raising her head from its resting place she noticed the early morning sun sneak around the edges of the window shutters it would soon be time to get up. Marius needed to get to his office and Faith had a job tonight so she needed to get her fighting gear ready.

Tonight would be her last fight for the entertainment of the rich and bored, she would be fighting a lion at one of Atia’s dinner parties. It was also one of the few things that Marius had put his foot down about since she’d agreed to marry him. He had claimed that no wife of his was going to have to fight wild animals for the amusement of the rich when he owned a successful business. He had no problem with anything else Faith might want to fight, but there was no longer any reason for her to fight for money.

In a way Faith could see his point, she only put on these exhibitions to make money, which she didn’t need any more, plus she'd have more time to train and follow her vocation once she didn’t have to make a living. Snuggling up to Marius, Faith warned herself that she would have to be careful that her new husband didn’t start to dictate what she did, or did not do. To this end she always (or nearly always) arranged things so that they came back to her place to have sex, that way she could be in charge and if there was any arguments it would be Marius who got thrown out onto the street in the middle of the night. Faith’s gentle movements woke Marius up; he yawned as he opened his eyes and looked over at his lover.

“What time is it?” he asked sleepily.

“About the first hour.” Faith raised her head to look into his face, for a moment there was no reaction.

“Aaaagh!” Marius sat bolt upright and looked around himself in panic, “I’m late!” He started to clamber over Faith’s body as she lay giggling at her fiancés’ antics. “What are you laughing at, woman?” Marius searched the floor for his clothes, “If I don’t get to work on time those useless Greeks will rob me blind and we’ll both end up out on the streets begging.” 

Marius hopped about the room trying to put on his britches while fighting a losing battle with his tunic; Faith didn’t help his temper by laughing out loud at his involuntary clowning. However, her amusement had the effect of calming Marius down and making him realise just how ridiculous he must look. He sat down heavily on the couch by the window and smiled resignedly at his foolishness.

“More haste less speed,” Faith quoted as she slid from the bed and walked over to where her lover sat semi-clothed.

Marius sighed and looked longingly at Faith’s naked body, putting his arm around her waist he pulled her towards him and laid his head against her stomach.

“When can we start a family?” he asked as he kissed her belly.

The question caught Faith by surprise; it hadn’t occurred to her that Marius would want to start a family straight away.

“When we’re married,” Faith broke away from Marius’ embrace and walked across the room to pour two cups of water.

“When will that be?” Marius went back to getting dressed, Faith walked back to him and handed him a cup of water.

“Soon,” she drank from her own cup as Marius raised a sceptical eyebrow, Faith noticed his look, “no, honest…as soon as we’re hitched we can plan for a family.”

“Plan?” Marius now more or less fully dressed stood up, “I thought it just sort of happened, a natural response to all the sex…I didn’t think it needed ‘planning’.”

“Oh everything needs planning.” Faith explained as she guided Marius towards the door, standing on tip-toe she kissed him lightly on the lips; he made a grab for her but she easily avoided his grasp, “Not now,” she laughed, “remember all those light-fingered Greeks robbing you blind.”

“Of course,” Marius agreed as he pulled open the door, “until tonight then.”

“Tonight,” Faith confirmed as she watched Marius walk off down the stairs and into the street; she was already acting like the good little wife watching her husband go off to work, kinda lame of her she thought.

0=0=0=0

After washing and dressing Faith ate and then headed out onto the streets; she walked through the narrow alleys and out into the market places, she hung around the wine shops always keeping her ears open. She listened for any word of any strange occurrences or any particularly bloody murders. It had been months since she had chased the wounded sauropithecus and she’d heard nothing to suggest that it was still alive.

Maybe it was dead, but Faith didn’t believe that, okay she had stabbed it a couple of times and drawn blood making it call off its attack. Somehow she didn’t believe that the wounds she'd given it were enough to kill it. But might not its wounds have got infected causing it to die of blood poisoning?

Reaching the docks Faith talked to a couple of her contacts, neither woman had heard or seen anything out of the ordinary, true someone had fallen in the river again the night before, but they’d probably been drunk. Faith thought about this for a while, this area was dangerous; it was close to several wine shops popular with sailors. It would be natural enough for someone to get a little too drunk and walk off the end of the peer. It wasn’t as if there was a hand rail or anything to stop you from blundering into the river.

0=0=0=0

The sauropithecus watched Faith from a roof top close by, he would have to hunt and kill the warrior female soon, she was getting too close to his den. The sauropithecus’ tongue flicked out tasting her scent, yes, he thought, as soon as the sun went down tonight he would hunt her and kill her and then he would feast on her flesh and he would absorb her power and strength.

0=0=0=0

Turning quickly Faith studied the dockside; she saw nothing that shouldn’t be there; she’d had the strongest feeling that someone or something had been watching her. But as her eyes darted from one possible hiding place to another she saw nothing. Shrugging her shoulders to get rid of the feeling that someone was about to plunge a dagger in her back, she turned and started to head back to her apartment.

Stopping off at her favourite wine shop, it being about the sixth hour, she ate a meal of mutton stew and bread before going home and preparing her gear for tonight’s entertainment. As she sat by her window sharpening her sword Faith’s mind wandered back to Marius, marriage and babies. Perhaps it wouldn’t be that bad, she tried to convince herself. So far Marius had been a considerate and attentive lover; he’d even given up screwing his female slaves…but how long would that last once her belly started to swell and she got all fat and bloated?

Sighing angrily she tried to push these unpleasant thoughts aside, but what if there was an outbreak of monsters and nightwalkers? True there hadn’t been so far, vampires appeared to stay away from Rome and there were nowhere near as many demons in the city as there had been in Sunnydale. But how was she supposed to chase after demons if she was pregnant all the time? So wrapped up in these thoughts of her impending marriage and probable rapid impregnation Faith completely failed to notice the sauropithecus watching her from the roof of the house across the street.

0=0=0=0

“Is that the best you could do, Timon?” Faith studied the rather old and moth eaten mountain lion that cowered in its cage before her.

“What’s wrong with it?” Timon was obviously upset by Faith’s reaction; he scratched the back of his head, “It’s the best I could get for the money.”

Faith looked at the horse dealer disbelievingly; she squatted down next to the cage and poked the animal with a long stick. It snarled at her and made a half hearted attempt to bat the stick away with its fore paw.

“This is someone’s pet cat isn’t it?” Faith stood up and looked at Timon accusingly.

“What?” Timon held up his hands defensively as Faith turned on him, “I swear! It’s the best I could get with the money I was given.”

“Yeah right,” Faith placed her hands on her hips and eyed Timon suspiciously, “It’ll have to do,” she sighed, “get some hot irons ready just in case it doesn’t want to come out of its cage…has it been fed recently?”

“No,” replied Timon proudly, “we want it good and fierce and hungry for your blood!” Realising what he had just said, Timon looked at Faith his face going red with embarrassment, “I mean we want a good show, don’t we?”

“And you expect a starving animal to put up a good fight do you?” Faith shook her head in disgust.

“Well I thought…” Timon was cowed in to silence by the look in Faith’s eyes.

“Timon,” Faith put a comradely arm around the Horse Jew’s shoulder, “what say I starve you for a week then put you in the arena? Think you’d put up a good fight?”

“Umm no,” Timon admitted, he was feeling really uncomfortable just about now; Fidelia was beautiful, but then so was a Tiger.

“Give it something to eat,” she instructed, “not too much, a leg of mutton, uncooked without too much meat left on it, the poor furry sap’s gonna need some energy if it’s gonna die well.”

“Right you are, Fidelia.” Timon sighed with relief as Faith removed her arm from his shoulder, “do you want to see where you’re going to fight?”

Timon led Faith into the atrium where an area of about five paces square had been cordoned off from the rest of the room by heavy rope nets. Timon proudly showed her the gate he had fixed up to get the lion into the fighting area. There were torches placed all around the little arena so there would be plenty of light for her to fight by (not that she really needed it) and for the audience to see her.

“And where do I make my entrance from?” Faith walked around the netting looking for an entrance.

Timon’s mouth opened as he pointed but no words came out of his mouth as he realised his mistake.

“You forgot didn’t you?” The sarcasm simply dripped from Faith’s lips, she shook her head once more before smiling at the confused Jew, “Don’t worry I’ll slide down the roof there,” Faith pointed to where the corner of the roof overhung the arena, “I can jump into the arena from there it’ll be more spectacular than climbing through the ropes.” Looking down at the floor she pointed, “Marble?” 

Timon nodded silently, had he made another mistake?

“Never mind,” reassured Faith, “I just won’t wear sandals…but that cat is going to slide all over the place.”

“We can put down some sand.” Volunteered Timon.

“Do that, it’ll help soak up the blood,” finally satisfied Faith turned her head to look at Timon, “where do I change.”

“Stable,” Timon pointed in the direction of said stables.

“Typical,” Faith muttered as she walked off to collect her gear and change.

0=0=0=0

Standing in the stable Faith looked down at her body and studied all the fine scars that laced her skin. They would all fade eventually, one of the good things about being a slayer…but if she wasn’t a slayer in the first place she wouldn’t have got all the scars. The most noticeable of her collection were the four scars that stood in a row on her belly where the sauropithecus had stabbed her. Idly she wondered if she could use their presence to put off starting a family. She could claim that if she got pregnant when her stomach swelled it would stretch her skin and if the wounds weren’t properly healed the scars would never vanish.

Laughing at herself as she put on her loin cloth and fastened the big, wide, leather belt around her waist, and after those scars had gone what excuse would she use then? This would all have to wait until tomorrow; and maybe if the cat got lucky she would never have to worry about it again? Picking up her jug of olive oil she poured some into her hand and started to rub it onto her legs.

“Got a good view from up there?” Faith called; she’d heard someone move in the hay loft as she was fixing her belt.

“I wasn’t spying on you,” Octavian appeared and climbed down a ladder to stand a few feet behind her, “it’s just...I hate these parties my mother throws. I was hoping I could hide in here for a while.”

Glancing over her shoulder Faith watched as the youth…no young man now; stood uncomfortably in the stable with her clutching a ‘book’ in his hand.

“Good is it?” Faith watched as Octavian blushed, “I mean the book,” she smiled, “never big on reading myself.” Having finished oiling her legs Faith straightened up and started on her arms, breasts and stomach. “Come here, do something useful and do my back.”

“Why do you…” began Octavian as he hesitantly started to rub the oil on to Faith’s skin.

“The oil?” Faith shrugged, “it looks good and it makes me hard to grab hold of…plus it makes my skin so smooth,” Faith laughed as she remembered an old TV ad. “Domina, domina,” she mimicked an as yet unborn TV voice over artist, “why are your hands so soft? Shut-up and keep scrubbing, slave!” Only Faith laughed, she suspected that the joke lost something in the translation.

“No,” Octavian put more oil on Faith’s back, “I mean this…the fighting and whoring…”

“Hey that was a one time thing,” Faith pointed out quickly.

“Accepted,” agreed Octavian, “but you’re an intelligent young woman isn’t there something else you could do?”

“Like?”

“Umm,” Octavian was stuck for an answer, “yes I see,” he admitted finally, “but couldn’t you have found a husband?”

“Great career choices,” Faith laughed bitterly, “Wife or whore…no, fighting was the only thing I was trained for, and I’ve made a good living at it so far.”

“There,” Octavian tapped her on the shoulder, “done.”

“How do I look?” Faith turned to face Octavian; his eyes snapped down to look at her breasts as they gleamed in the lantern light, “I have a face too,” she pointed out.

“Yes! Umm fine,” Octavian reluctantly looked her in the eye, “very fierce and warrior like I expect the beast will roll over and die from the very sight of you…not-not that I mean…”

“I know what you mean,” Faith wiped her hands on a rag before picking up her sword and knife and attaching them to her belt, “now stop staring at my tits and go to the party or do you want your mother to drag you out in front of all her guests?”

“It wouldn’t be my first choice,” Octavian agreed and started to head off towards the atrium, he stopped at the door to the stable and turned to face Faith once more, “Good luck, Fidelia Venetrix, you have been of service to me so, if I’m ever in a position to help you don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Likewise,” Faith tied back her hair, “any time you need a sword I’ll be there…but not for the sex okay? Like I say that was one time only.”

“Of course,” Octavian smiled quickly, “until that day then…”

When Faith looked again and found he'd already gone, “Weird kid,” she muttered; picking up her shield she walked out into the night before making her way up to the roof.

0=0=0=0

“In the blue corner, all the way from Boston in the United City States of America,” called Timon to the dinner guests that crowded around the nets, “FIDELIA VENETRIX!”

Faith stepped off the roof and landed lightly in the middle of the arena, there was a few gasps and a smattering of applause.

“In the red corner,” Timon signalled to the slaves in charge of the lion’s cage, “A vicious denizen of the Syrian mountains,” the door to his cage was opened and the lion was poked with a red hot iron, “LEO!”

The lion screamed more than snarled as it fled in terror from its cage. Suddenly finding itself in a brightly lit area surrounded by shouting humans the mountain lion’s first instinct was to try to escape. It ran at the nets and tried to claw is way through; this gave quite the wrong impression to the audience. What they saw was a vicious wild animal trying to get at them and kill them, several of the women screamed as did more than a few of the men. What Faith saw was a terrified animal just trying to get away.

0=0=0=0

“Oh this is going well!” Atia said to her daughter Octavia, the young woman contrived to look bored and ignored her mother’s words.

0=0=0=0

Faith watched the lion as she crouched behind her shield with her sword ready to strike. The damn animal was pacing up and down the nets on the other side of the arena from her, she sighed; this was going to be hard work. The cursed thing looked as if it hadn’t even noticed her; had that damned fool Timon bought a blind animal? The lion continued to snarl and try to get at the audience, if she was quick Faith reasoned she could be across the arena and stab the freaking thing to death in about a breath and a half. But that was not what Atia had paid for, she’d paid for a show, a fight not an execution.

0=0=0=0

Atia’s eyebrows drew together, when was the fight to the death going to start? At the moment there was just a lot of shouting and snarling but no blood! What did that gladiatrix girl think she was playing at?

0=0=0=0

Standing up straight Faith walked over to the lion and slapped it on the rump with the flat of her sword; in an instant she was the centre of the lion’s universe. That’s better, she thought and settled down into a fighting stance ready for the lion’s first attack.

0=0=0=0

Sauropithecus roared in anger as he watched the lesser predator turn to face the warrior female. How dare it try to take his prey? It would die for its presumption.

0=0=0=0

Staggering a little as the lion hit her shield, Faith could hear its teeth and claws rake the smooth bronze as she brought up her sword and jabbed the creature in the ribs. She could have finished the fight there and then by thrusting her sword all the way into the lion and cutting its heart in two. But, instead she limited her thrust to the first inch of the blade…the show must go on. Spinning and letting go of the shield the lion tried to bit at the thing that had stung him in the side, his jaws closed on empty air before he turned his attention back to the creature that danced in front of his eyes.

0=0=0=0

Its claws clicked on the roof tiles as the sauropithecus rapidly made its way across the roof and leapt into the air.

0=0=0=0

There were renewed screams from the crowd as Faith became aware of something behind her. The lion had lost all interest in her and was trying to find its way back into its cage. Faith turned to see the sauropithecus standing in the centre of the arena.

“Oh fuck!” she cursed.

0=0=0=0

“Timon!” Atia called the Horse Jew over to her, “What’s going on?” she demanded.

“Umm,” Timon rapidly thought of what he should say, “it’s all part of the show, domina,” he reassured her, “nothing to worry about…nothing at all.”

Without another word he scurried off to collect the household guards together, he might need them to get out of here…and then there was the blue monster thing to worry about!

0=0=0=0

Circling the sauropithecus, Faith was sure it was bigger and bluer than it used to be. The scar on its face where she’d cut it made it look as if it was smiling but it wasn’t, not really. It crouched down opened its mouth and hissed horribly at her, Faith ducked behind her shield just in case it was one of those lizards that could spray venom at you. Glancing over the edge of her shield Faith decided it was time to attack. Rushing at the creature she smashed into it leading with her shield, she was sure she heard a rib or two snap; stabbing at the things belly with her sword she was gratified to see blood squirt onto the sand.

The crowd roared its approval; this was indeed turning into a fine entertainment. The Sauropithecus ignored the crowd and raked his claws across Faith’s back drawing blood from the four long furrows he'd made. He pushed her away to give himself some room before launching a low attack aimed at knocking her off her feet. Dancing to one side, Faith stabbed down with her sword as the monster slid by, again blood squirted from a wound in the creature’s side as it ended up in a tangle with the terrified mountain lion and part of the net. Once again the crowd cheered its approval.

0=0=0=0

“Mother!” Octavia sat up as she watched the life or death struggle being played out in her living room, “Where did you find such a creature?”

“Oh it was nothing,” lied Atia, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know, you know?”

0=0=0=0

The sauropithecus reached out with a clawed hand and grabbed the lion breaking its neck with a loud snapping sound, there were loud ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the crowd. Hoping to catch the creature unbalanced Faith attacked again. Making it look as if she was going to smash into it like she’d done before she ran at the sauropithecus, but just at the last moment she skidded to a halt. Using the edge of her shield as she had seen Pullo use it she punched the blue scaled demon in the throat.

The sauropithecus’ eyes went wide as it automatically brought its hands up to clutch at its throat and rapidly closing wind pipe. Keeping behind her shield Faith stepped into the monster's guard and stabbed it several times in the belly feeling for a soft spot between its muscles and ribs. The demon tried to slash Faith’s legs and lower body with its taloned feet but only succeeded in scratching the face of Faith’s shield and making long furrows in the metal. Still stabbing with her sword Faith felt it slip between two ribs. The sauropithecus roared in pain and caught Faith on the side of her head with its hand cutting open her cheek.

Screaming in agony, Faith pushed hard on the hilt of her sword driving it deep into the sauropithecus’ body. The hilt slammed up against the monster’s ribcage, throwing herself back to get the leverage needed she pulled the sword free before burying it again in the creatures chest cavity. Blood oozed and squirted everywhere as Faith stabbed the blue demon time and again. The audience yelled their appreciation even as they were splashed with blood and tiny blue scales. Eventually the sauropithecus’ struggles got weaker and weaker.

Pulling her sword from the creature one last time Faith stood panting for breath as she stood over the monster. She was covered in her own and the demon’s blood, she ached from the battering and the many deep scratches she’d received. Looking into the sauropithecus’ eyes she saw them start to dim as its breath came in long ragged gasps. Taking a firm grip on her sword she raising it above her head and brought it down with all her remaining strength. The blade sliced into the creature’s neck and its head rolled across the floor to wobble to a halt in the middle of the arena.

Staggering over to the severed head Faith tried to pick it up, realising she’d have to use both hands as there was no hair or ears to hang on to, she dropped her sword and shield and lifted the head high for all to see. The crowd cheered and yelled, they threw money and jewels; Faith had vague recollections of Timon cutting his way through the netting and a couple of his men taking her under the arms and carrying her from the arena.

0=0=0=0

“Mother that was amazing!” Octavia cried as Atia accepted the plaudits of her guests.

“Yes it did go rather well,” she smiled like an empress, “trouble is though, how do I possibly follow that?”

0=0=0=0

Opening her eyes Faith found herself lying on someone’s cloak in the stables.

“How do you feel?” Octavian knelt down beside her.

“How do I look?” Faith discovered it hurt to laugh.

“Do you want the truth?” asked the youth in all seriousness.

“Not really,” Faith groaned.

“Well in that case you look fine,” there wasn’t even a hint of amusement in Octavian’s voice, “Shall I send for a surgeon?”

“No,” Faith tried to struggle into a sitting position but Octavian casually pushed her back down onto the cloak, “just have someone get me to Marius’ house will ya?”

“Of course,” Octavian signalled to several slaves who lifted Faith onto a stretcher, “it’s only natural that you’d want to spend your last hours with your lover.”

“Hey kid,” Faith grabbed hold of the teenagers arm, “I ain’t dead yet.”

0=0=0=0

The next time Faith woke up she recognised the ceiling of Marius’ bed chamber, turning her head slightly Marius’ face swam into sight.

“Hi,” she croaked.

“Salve`,” Marius smiled at her but she could see the worry in his eyes.

“Hey don’t look like that,” Faith said with all the determination she could muster, “I ain’t dead, I don’t intend to die either, I gotta wedding to go to.” She misread the look of sadness on Marius’ face, “Yeah okay I get it,” Faith nodded her head slowly how could she expect anything different…like Niobe had said ‘all men are pigs’. “Don’t want to marry a scarred up old hooker like me anymore? Yeah…well I’ll be on my way…” she tried to push herself off the bed but was easily pushed back down onto the mattress by Marius.

“You were never a whore, Fidelia, whatever you might think,” bemused Marius shook his head, “if you were, then every great lady in Rome is no better than a common street prostitute. And as for the scars, they will fade…they always do. Even if they didn’t I’d want no other wife but you, my love…now shut up and get better, I’ve got a wedding to arrange and it would look ill if you had to be carried to the ceremony.”

0=0=0=0


	13. Chapter 13

13.

**The Epilogue.**

Smiling, Faith watched as Marius slaughtered imaginary Gauls with his wooden sword, his father complained that the boy took after his mother too much; why couldn’t he play at counting money or something?

“Marius,” Faith called to her son, “don’t you dare get mud on your clothes.” His mother’s words stopped the five year old for all of a heartbeat before he turned to fight off another horde of blue painted barbarians. “So, Aemilius,” she turned to speak to the old soldier who stood behind the market stall, “how are we doing?”

Not long after marrying Marius, Faith had used her money to set up in a business of her own; ‘diversification’ she’d told her husband. The truth was she didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of living on the profits of slavery, so she’d set up her own arms company. Everyone always needed weapons and Faith thought it might as well be her who supplied them. 

“Very good day today, domina,” Aemilius scratched his ear and smiled knowingly, “seems a lot of senators forgot their daggers when they left home this morning, he-he.”

“Ya don’t think there’s gonna be trouble do ya?” Faith cast a worried glance over at the senate house where a crowd of important looking men stood around blocking up the entrance, she pointed, “Isn’t that Caesar?”

“Aye,” nodded the grizzled veteran, “but for how much longer?” 

“Whatever,” Faith didn’t interest herself in politics as long as it didn’t interfere with business. “So profits are up?”

“Indeed, indeed,” Aemilius showed her the contents of the strong box chained under the stall, “You have a good product and your name still carry’s weight with them in the business. ‘As used by Fidelia Venetrix’ has become a watch word for good quality.”

Smiling Faith stretched her back, this was her third pregnancy and standing up for long periods was a real pain in every sense. 

“Here, domina,” Aemilius pulled over an old wooden box, “sit, rest your back a while.”

Faith had found having children was as easy as falling off a log; and just as painful, even for a slayer. Smiling in thanks at the old man she sat down, next time she must remember not to push quite so hard. The midwife had almost missed poor Marius when he’d popped abruptly into the world and little Fidelia had almost shared the same fate. The sound of shouting came to her ears from the direction of the senate, obviously some fine point of law was being debated.

“Marius,” she called just to be on the safe side, she'd seen riots just happen before now, “stay close to Mama,” she ordered, the boy dragged himself a couple of feet closer to where his mother sat, after all there were just as many Gaul’s there as anywhere else.

“I’ll have the accounts ready for you tomorrow if that’s alright domina?” The old soldier turned to deal with a customer.

Keeping one eye on her son, Faith scanned the market for any familiar faces but saw none, the noise from the senate was getting louder but most people didn’t notice they didn’t have slayer hearing.

“Alms for an old soldier!”

Turning at the sound of the cry, Faith saw a veteran in his late twenties hop by using a crutch; he’d lost his left leg below the knee.

“Hey soldier!” she called, “What legion?”

“Ninth Hispania,” answered the soldier as he turned to hop over to her.

“Cohort?”

“Prime Cohort domina.” The soldier answered proudly standing just a little straighter.

“Here,” Faith flipped a silver coin to the soldier who snatched it out of the air, “I give work to wounded veterans if you want it and you aren’t a thief or a drunkard.”

“Thank you, domina,” the soldier bit down on the coin then hid it away in folds of his tunic, “Thank-you for the offer but I’m just trying to get home…that’ll help me get a fair way.” He patted the coin, “Good fortune be with you, domina, and may you have many strong sons and beautiful daughters.”

“Thank you, soldier,” Faith smiled at the man, “I hope you get home.”

0=0=0=0

Jupiter, greatest and best, hobbled across the square until he was out of sight of Fidelia. He sat down on a bench by a fountain and took the coin out of his tunic and held it up to the sun. He could tell real silver when he saw it, after all he was a god. Chuckling to himself he hid the coin under his tunic again.

“I always said that she had a good soul and a kind heart…given the chance.”

“Yes you did.” Juno sat down next to him in the guise of a washer woman, “I distinctly remember you saying.”

“Hmm,” Jupiter straightened his tunic, “well, at least it’s one in the eye for the Powers. They’d have let her die you know?”

“I know.” Juno nodded her head, it was no good arguing with her husband when he was all self-righteous like this, but she had to say something, “so you took her from her world to save this one?”

“Her world was doomed anyway,” replied Jupiter gruffly, “the Powers had seen to that. This world has a chance now she is here. In what, two thousand years time? She’ll be born again and this time the two slayers will be strong enough to stop The First.”

“Bit of a long way round to do it,” observed Juno, “what if her line is wiped out? A lot can happen in two thousand years.”

“Ha!” Jupiter threw his head back and laughed at the sky, “The number of children she’ll have…never!”

The two gods stood up, Juno went about her washing while Jupiter hobbled off to the north. It was hard work this god business.

0=0=0=0

Faith got slowly to her feet, “Damn it,” she muttered; she could see men in blood stained togas run from the senate house.

“Aemilius get everything packed up and take it home.” Fidelia gestured to the senate house, “Something bad’s happened, I’ll contact you tomorrow…now where’s that boy? MARIUS!”

The child was instantly at his mother’s side, he knew that tone of voice and he knew that there would be no arguing with it.

“Good boy,” she laid her hand on the child’s head.

“You’ll be alright, domina?” asked Aemilius as he packed away the remains of his stock and clutched the strong box to his chest.

“What? Fidelia Venetrix worry about a little mob violence?”

Aemilius didn’t look convinced but he did as he was told and headed off towards his home. Faith looked around the rapidly emptying square, if people were running away there should be no trouble.

“Come along now, Marius, hold tight to Mama’s hand and don’t let go, understand?” the boy solemnly nodded his head, “Good boy, now let’s go find your father.”

THE END.

0=0=0=0


End file.
